^ JESUS ^ 

FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

GEORGE HOLLEY GILBERT 




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Book.- 



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JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 
WHEN SCIENCE AIDS RELIGION 

GEORGE HOLLEY GILBERT 



JESUS 

FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

WHEN SCIENCE AIDS RELIGION 



BY 
GEORGE HOLLEY GILBERT 

Ph.D. Leipzig, D.D., Dartmoutti 

AUTHOR OF "student's LIFE OF JESUS," "STUDENT'S LIFE OF PAUL," 

"interpretation of the BIBLE," "CHRISTIANITY IN 

THE APOSTOLIC AGE," "jESUS," ETC. 




HODDER & STOUGHTON 

NEW YORK 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






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(a^ 



COPYRIGHT, 191 7, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

JUN 19 1917 



©CI,A467501 

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TO THE READER OF THIS BOOK 

For the quiet fireside where the spirit 
moves out most easily to new points of 
vision and where it catches far voices of 
the past and the future, this book is writ- 
ten, not for the desk of the student who 
seeks the doctrines that have grown so lux- 
uriantly around the person and the work 
of Jesus, or even the detailed results of 
modern biblical investigation. It is written 
for the modern man who is hospitable 
to all truth, whether old or new, and who 
is less afraid of change than of cherishing 

"an ancient form 
Through which the spirit breathes no more." 

It is written moreover with the confident 
conviction that, while some things in the 
Gospel story which we once prized cannot 
bear the revealing light that has fallen upon 
them with increasing intensity during the 
past hundred years, nothing that mars the 
character of Jesus or lessens his power to 



vi TO THE READER OF THIS BOOK 

lead mankind to God has yet come forth 
out of the melting pot of scientific histori- 
cal analysis. 

This book would mediate between a dim 
and alien past and the living present, be- 
tween a past that was religious but unscien- 
tific and a present that exalts science to the 
seat of religion, between a past that con- 
tained a Treasure capable of enriching all 
future ages and a present which needs that 
Treasure none the less because of its supe- 
rior knowledge. 

This book would be — if not a cup of in- 
spiration — at least a reverent lifter of the 
veil from One whose unfathomable con- 
fidence both in God and in us is a steadily 
flowing fountain of the purest and deepest 
cheer. If the book fails of this, its end, the 
author prays the reader to forget it, but — 
to continue the great Quest after the springs 
of Jesus, for of a truth this Quest is for 
every man. 



INTRODUCTION 

THE LONG HOPE OF ISRAEL 

Tracing his way along the stream of 
Christian life back to its humble source in 
Galilee, observing what that stream has 
wrought across the wide expanse of years, 
the traveller comes at length to that far- 
distant spring with a mingled sense of awe 
and mystery. This stream of life, still ris- 
ing slowly as it flows, has touched with 
hope a third of all the millions of mankind, 
and makes to grow along its banks the fair- 
est things, the things of greatest promise, 
that we see in all the earth. Go back along 
its winding course through other centuries. 
How has it wrought on right and left, in 
single souls, in states, and kingdoms? It 
made the men who planted what we prize 
in this new world; it brought the spring- 
time in the days of Luther; it gave ideals 
of purity and right and strength to knight- 

vii 



Vlil INTRODUCTION 

hood; and further back, through the rude 
landscape of the Middle Age, it kept a little 
candle burning in the cloister of the monk, 
it made sweet records of self-sacrifice, and 
gave to many struggling spirits songs in the 
night Still journeying further backward 
by this stream of Christian life that runs 
from soul to soul, and moulds the manners 
and the thoughts of men, we see great em- 
perors and heathen gods go down before 
the unarmed witnesses of Christ; we pass 
through fields made sacred by the blood of 
martyrs, and meet at last, far back, the 
hurrying messengers whose eyes had seen 
the very Master and whose ears had heard 
the Gospel from his lips. What zeal is 
theirs, what power breathes upon us in their 
words, what visions must their souls have 
seen and felt to lift them from their lowly 
lot and make them glorious through all 
coming time! 

Another stream there was, less wide and 
clear, that rose far off in some inspired soul 
and flowed through many generations till 
it found its rest just where the stream of 
Christian life arose. It was the hope of 



INTRODUCTION ix 

One whose rule would bring what neither 
king nor prophet yet had brought to Israel, 
a hope that varied with the varying times, 
now earthly grand, now mystical and high, 
now narrow as the land in which it rose, 
again majestic in its sweep, including every 
tongue and tribe. 

Beside this stream of hope, back in the 
twilight of the ancient world, we take our 
stand, and listen for a moment to the words 
in which it found expression from the in- 
most heart of one who from his youth had 
longed to greet the promised day in the 
form foreseen by Israel's greater prophets. 

Terah, ruler of a little synagogue in cen- 
tral Galilee, in the village of Gath Hepher, 
just east of Sepphoris, in the last years of 
Herod called the Great, said, while resting 
from his morning labour by a fig tree in his 
vineyard, ^^O that the Holy One — blessed 
be his name! would rend these silent 
heavens and send at last to us, his people, 
the Deliverer, even King Messiah! 

"We have waited long, and the waves of 
evil and sorrow have gone over us, like the 



INTRODUCTION 



waves of the great sea in number. Nations 
that fear not Jehovah have despised us; 
they have profaned our holy things, and 
filled our cup with bitterness. 

"As a flock torn and scattered by jackals 
or by lions from the thickets of Jordan, so 
has Israel been torn and scattered well nigh 
all the years since the great prophets told 
our fathers of the coming Kingdom, and 
fell asleep. We wept long by the rivers of 
Babylon, far away from our homes and our 
ruined Temple. The Syrians and the 
Romans have mocked us, have trodden our 
sacred books in the dust, and have brought 
us under an iron yoke. Worst of all, we 
have been peeled and broken by foes who 
were of our own household. 

"Has God forgotten us? Has the Most 
High cast us away from being his people 
because of all our sins? Yet the Pharisees 
in every town, with long prayers and fast- 
ings, with tithes and washings and many 
other rites, keep all the Law. They are 
holy, and the Lord must surely have regard 
for them, and visit us in mercy for their 
sakes. Righteous, too, and well-pleasing 



INTRODUCTION xi 

unto him are those silent people in Sep- 
phoris and in the desert places by the river, 
who always go in white garments, who de- 
spise riches, and who have all things in 
common. 

*'But the many in our land are not like 
these, and the scribes say they are accursed. 
May that not be! We all are children of 
the covenant with Abraham, and the Lord 
God is full of loving kindness. Yet are we 
far from right, from being such a people 
as Jehovah seeks; and there are other sins 
than those the scribes are quick to charge 
us with. 

"We keep the fasts indeed, but often are 
the fatherless forgot, and widows. Some 
among us speak the tongues of Gentiles, and 
read their books that take away the fear of 
God; and many seek for gain as beasts seek 
after prey at evening. We suffer the abom- 
inations of idolatry in our midst Our 
priests in the holy city, not excepting Annas 
himself, the high priest, break bread with 
the uncircumcised who oppress us, and do 
not hope for the coming age. They lay up 
gold in abundance, jewels too and costly 



xii INTRODUCTION 

raiment, while the poor, their brothers, toil 
and groan unpitied. 

^^O that Elijah would come, and call 
aloud, standing upon the mountains of 
Israel, and bring the great repentance! If 
all the people were contrite for one day, say 
the rabbis, the glorious deliverance of the 
Messiah would surely appear. But, alas! 
the Gentiles are poured out upon us as a 
flood, and the noise of the world fills our 
ears, and there is no prophet or open vision. 

"Our land mourns, but not unto Jehovah. 
It cries out because the burden of suffering 
and disappointment is too great for it. Our 
young men fall here among the mountains 
of Galilee, the strong-hearted Zealots who 
think to break the Roman yoke as their fa- 
thers broke that of Syria in the days when 
God exalted the house of Mattathias; and 
yonder in Judea has not Pilate hanged our 
brethren upon crosses, and made the courts 
of the Temple red with the blood of the 
descendants of Jacob? The throne of Da- 
vid is desolate, and our people pay taxes to 
a stranger on a distant shore who knows not 
the Lord. 



INTRODUCTION Xlil 

^^My heart is sick, and my eyes must soon 
close without seeing the glory of the last 
days. But perhaps it is better with those 
who have gone to Sheol than with us who 
see our land consumed by our enemies. 
They sleep in peace, but they shall awake 
and come forth from the dust when King 
Messiah destroys our foes on every side, and 
when He makes Zion higher than all the 
mountains of the earth. Then shall our 
land be clean again, and the light of Israel 
be greater than the glory of David and 
Solomon. All nations shall gather them- 
selves under the banner of our King, and 
he shall rule in the might of God over a 
Kingdom that shall never be destroyed. 
Then shall we go up to the feasts year by 
year, singing as we go, and none shall ever 
make us afraid. We shall plough these 
fields again with joy, and gather our har- 
vests in peace. We shall sit under our vines 
and fig-trees, and shall meditate on the law 
of the Lord. And all Israel shall keep the 
law with perfect hearts in the days of Mes- 
siah. Would God that those days might 
come speedily!'' 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

And Terah, sighing deeply, rose and took 
up his morning labour in the vineyard. 

The time of Jehovah's deliverance was 
indeed coming on apace, but the aged ruler 
of the synagogue knew it not. No one in 
the circuit of the land knew, though some 
were longing for it with a great and pure 
longing. But no sign appeared. The way 
before them seemed as dark as the long 
way behind, and in the bosoms of most of 
the faithful few hope often struggled with 
despair. 

But even in those very days, in another 
quiet town of Galilee, only a few miles dis- 
tant from Gath Hepher, toward the Plain, 
there was a man, now about thirty years of 
age, who walked perfectly with the Lord 
God. Like Terah in his vineyard, this man 
was toiling for his daily bread and for those 
dependent on him; and yet, though an ar- 
tisan from his youth, a worker in wood like 
his father before him, unknown to the lead- 
ers of his people, he was fitted for what- 
ever high commission Jehovah had in store 
for King Messiah. He had heard the 
Voice, he knew the way of God, he had 



INTRODUCTION XV 

sounded, as no other, the need of man, and 
had beheld, as no other, man's potential 
glory. He had absorbed the loftiest truths 
of the noblest prophets, and had looked 
beyond. He had grown to a spiritual stat- 
ure commensurate with his unique vision. 
The best hope of weary generations was 
soon to be fulfilled in him, Jesus, son of 
Joseph, a carpenter of Nazareth. 



CONTENTS 



To THE Reader of this Book .... 
Introduction — The Long Hope of Israel 



CHAPTER 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 



PAGE 
V 

vii 

21 

33 
43 
53 
63 
73 
8S 
95 
107 
129 

143 

The Triumph of Jesus Over Death 163 



The Herald 

From the Carpenter's Bench 
The Choice of Ways . . . 
First Notes of the Gospel 
The Widening Horizon . . 
Warning Voices .... 
The Galilean Crisis . . . 
The Kingdom Established . 
The Darkening Way . . . 
The Prophet in Jerusalem . 
The Thick Darkness . . 



CHAPTER ONE 
THE HERALD 



CHAPTER ONE 

THE HERALD 

"TT^LIJAH" had already come again, 
JOj according to an ancient promise, 
but he was hidden still from men in the 
wild regions of the desert of Tekoa. The 
shadows were thickening in the deep val- 
ley below him, over the Jordan and the 
Salt Sea, as he sat meditating in the entrance 
of his rocky cave, a roll of the prophets 
lying at his side. 

His home in Beth Zacharias beyond the 
highway from Jerusalem to the South Land 
had not seen him since his aged father and 
then his mother had breathed their farewell 
blessing, and had gone from earth strong in 
the hope that the day of the Lord was near. 
This hope, their only dower, they had 
passed on to the soul of their boy, where its 
flame, once kindled, burned with increasing 
might, consuming other hopes and all com- 

21 



22 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

mon ambitions. Their long wish that he 
might go before the promised King, to 
level and make straight his way, had grown 
in him with all his growth, and through the 
solitary years of thought and prayer and 
fellowship with the mighty spirits of 
Israel's past had ripened in a deep and 
solemn faith that he was called to be the 
herald of the coming age. 

Most of his old neighbours in Beth 
Zacharias had forgotten him. A few still 
wondered whether some great message 
might not yet come from the strange youth 
who had disappeared long since among the 
silent fastnesses of the Tekoan desert. An 
occasional shepherd, in the spring time, 
when bits of verdure for his flock were 
found along the wadys, met the recluse as 
he sought his rude fare among the rocks, 
or saw him poring o'er his precious roll of 
ancient wisdom in the shade of some stunted 
oak or juniper bush. And thus a rumour 
of his place and ways went forth to all the 
country round. 

The spirit of the solemn desert was near 
of kin to that of John; and as he looked 



THE HERALD 23 



abroad from out his rocky cell across the 
wide familiar landscape, its awful hush was 
welcome to him. ^^So might the tumult of 
the wicked be hushed within the gathering 
shadows of the Judgment Day!" 

The deeply cleft ridges of massive rock, 
one beyond another, that fell steeply down 
before him to the far edge of the Dead Sea, 
were not more impregnable than his spirit, 
nor more insensible to the soft allurements 
of pleasure. 

The withering air that rushed past him 
up the gorge, as though it came from some 
profound abyss of fire, was symbol of the 
intolerable blasts that soon should sweep 
the wicked off as chaff. 

A counterpart of Pharisee and scribe he 
saw beneath him in the mysterious sea, so 
fair to the eye, divinely sheltered, and lift- 
ing up a calm unruffled face to heaven, 
but bitter still, though ever drinking of 
sweet waters — bitter and strewing desola- 
tion along every shore it touched. 

But yonder, where the sun still bathed 
the heights of Moab, and where, above 
those purpling earthly heights, rose, mo- 



24 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

tionless and shining, other airy summits 
never scaled by man, he saw what yet should 
be for Israel, saw the exaltation that should 
follow present judgment, and he gazed 
long, all unmindful of the dread gulf be- 
neath him. 

Then voices of the past, awakened by 
the vision and the hour, came to him 
through the sacred silence with fresh, up- 
lifting messages of trust and hope. Words 
of ancient promise which had often thrilled 
him strangely, now kindled all his soul 
again and more deeply. 

**There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, 
And a scepter shall rise out of Israel." 

"Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine 

inheritance, 
And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
sion." 

"Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and 
the former things shall not be remembered, nor 
come into mind." 

And the sacred hope that lighted up those 
faces dearest to him in his boyhood became 



THE HERALD 25 



a passion and a prayer beyond the power 
of speech to utter. Again he felt the fare- 
well pressure of his father's hands as he, in 
glowing faith, bade him await the King's 
approach, not idly but as a prophet of the 
end. Thus rapt above himself with strong 
desire, his spirit open and intent, the mes- 
sage fell upon his inner ear: ^'The ap- 
pointed season is fulfilled. Make haste and 
call the nation to repentance. Spare not; 
cry aloud, for the great and terrible day 
is at hand." 

Then the young prophet bowed himself 
in prayer while the night gathered and the 
stars came out. Alone in the wide and wild 
desert, he was glad and strong, for the time 
of waiting was ended, and he had now a 
great and sure message for his people. 

We meet him next in Achor, whose val- 
ley, through his preaching, became a door 
of hope. Near a great highway along 
which, to and from the Jordan ford, 
throngs of people were daily passing, he 
lifted up his voice as herald of the coming 
King. 

To the eastward, in an hour, one came 



26 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

to Jericho, which with its suburbs lay con- 
cealed in palms and gardens of spice; and 
nearer was the road to the north, to Pha- 
saelus, Beth-shean, and the Lake of Galilee. 
The river Kelt was flowing with abundant 
water from the mountains of Gibeah and 
Beth-aven. 

Six days had passed already since the re- 
port had gone abroad that one clad like 
Elijah and powerful in his words had at 
last appeared in Israel. The morning of 
the seventh day saw people more in num- 
ber than before seeking the banks of the 
Kelt, to see and hear the young prophet. 
Few came except with quickened pulse and 
eager spirit, for the prophet's message — 
was it not what they had waited long to 
hear? Did it not mean a King of their own, 
yea and strong of arm to set them up on 
high? Did it not mean a swift release from 
the burden of taxes and the shame of for- 
eign rule? 

A King of their own, yes and overflowing 
wine-fats and wheat and figs and oil accord- 
ing to all their wishes! But some, whose 
sense of need was deeper, thought of hap- 



THE HERALD 27 



pier ways to serve the Lord than those of 
scribe and Pharisee, in which they and 
their fathers had long and vainly sought to 
walk. Might not the coming age bring bet- 
ter ways than these, and change their pain- 
ful service into one of joy? 

But nearly all who came — the rich and 
the poor, both young and old, those who 
wanted bread alone, and they who craved a 
higher good, came onward with expectant 
hearts. Nor were they sent away unmoved. 
For though the prophet talked of judgment 
and called them to renounce their sins, he, 
spoke also the word which they had come 
to hear, and spoke it with a tone of certainty 
that made their spirits leap in exultation. 
Their King was coming, and the day of 
their deliverance was at hand! They 
clasped each other in their arms and wept 
for joyo 

But the straitness of the path by which 
alone an entrance to the Kingdom could be 
had — the path of penitence and of purer, 
kindlier living — this stirred their hearts less 
deeply. Yet in the awe and gladness which 
the tidings of the Kingdom's near approach 



28 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

had brought, they were widely swayed to 
heed the prophet's stern rebuke and sum- 
mons, and to make confession of their sins. 
Group after group, some small, some num- 
bering scores, went down with John into 
the stream, and were baptised. The crowds 
grew less as night came on, but many lin- 
gered still beside the Kelt. Some cast them- 
selves upon the ground to await the excite- 
ment of another day among the wondering 
multitudes, and learn perhaps how soon, 
and where, the King would first be seen. 
Some were not able to depart, so strong 
upon them lay the prophet's spiritual in- 
fluence. He suffered these to follow him to 
his rude shelter in a neighbouring cliff, 
from which no offers of a resting place and 
food in Jericho could tempt him, and there 
he spoke to them more fully of his hope. 
They shared with him their bread and fish, 
and, late, they slept. 

Like this came other days, when from the 
bank of Kelt or Jordan wider circles heard 
the startling message, and bore it swiftly to 
their homes. The air grew thick with 
rumours. Men forgot their daily tasks and 



THE HERALD 29 



common pleasures in hearing stories of the 
prophet, or in talking of the future. Soon 
the farthest hamlets of the land were 
moved, as some wide forest when a summer 
storm draws near, and Israel looked and 
waited for a glorious Kingdom. 



CHAPTER TWO 



FROM THE CARPENTER'S BENCH 



CHAPTER TWO 

FROM THE carpenter's BENCH 

THE thrill that passed from heart to 
heart when John proclaimed the com- 
ing of the long-expected Kingdom reached 
Nazareth among the sheltering hills of 
Galilee as Mary, widowed mother of a 
family of seven, sought water for the eve- 
ning meal. She scarce had reached the 
fountain — the sole one in the village whose 
waters never failed— when a man came run- 
ning up the road that joins the hamlet with 
Esdraelon, shouting as he neared the foun- 
tain, "A prophet! a prophet!'' 

Then Mary with the other women, six or 
eight together, their jars unfilled, drank in 
the wondrous news which made this day of 
early spring one long to be remembered. 

The man who brought the tidings, a 
dweller in the town whom she had known 
for years, had come from Jericho, whither 

33 



34 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

he had gone some days before with skins of 
olive-oil for market. He there had heard 
of John, and then had seen him by the Jor- 
dan. So thrilled and conquered was he by 
what he saw and heard that he had been 
baptised, then leaving half his oil unsold 
had hastened with all speed to bear the start- 
ling message home to Nazareth. He said 
none knew whence John had come, or to 
what family in Israel he belonged, but all 
confessed that, when he spoke, the Spirit 
rested on him mightily as on Elijah in the 
ancient days. He told them boldly of their 
sins, and of the sifting that must be in all 
the land before Messiah could sit down 
upon his throne. He said the day of ven- 
geance and reward was just at hand — the 
day whose light would search the inmost 
thoughts of men. 

Now as the women heard these words, 
they marvelled much, believing what the 
man had told, and wondering what would 
follow. Other people soon came hurrying 
to the fountain, and Mary filled her jar, 
and started homeward. As she climbed the 
fountain stairs a neighbour who had heard 



FROM THE carpenter's BENCH 35 

the Story with her asked her if she thought 
that Jesus, her eldest son, would go down to 
Jordan at the prophet's call. This question 
had already asked itself within her heart, 
but had found no answer. She knew her 
son would do what seemed right to him, 
but whether this or that she could not tell. 
He had his own deep thoughts, not seldom 
strange to her in those old days. 

When evening came, she watched the 
path across the hill toward Sepphoris, ex- 
pecting Jesus, who with James and Joses, 
younger sons, wrought upon a storehouse 
for a wealthy man whose villa was an hour's 
walk from Nazareth. They came in sight 
at last, when all the evening shadows were 
blended into one, and, wearied by the long 
day's toil, approached their little home in 
silence. Their filial greeting was scarce 
spoken before Jesus, who was always quick 
to notice, read upon his mother's counte- 
nance that something new and wondrous had 
befallen. His sandals laid aside, he bathed 
his face and hands and feet, and then, re- 
clining in his customary place, he looked 
into her eyes and waited. 



36 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Then Mary quickly told what she had 
heard, and where, and who had brought the 
news. When she had finished speaking, her 
youngest son, Simon, who then was but a 
lad of twelve, most like his father Joseph 
whom he never saw, besought that he might 
run down to the village fountain, and if the 
man were there, might hear him for him- 
self. And Mary let him go. 

The older sons and daughters, with won- 
der in their hearts and many questions on 
their lips, ate their barley broth, their bread 
and fish. What would their rabbi, Nathan, 
say to this strange tale? Who of the people 
of the town would answer to the prophet's 
call? What would Pilate and the Romans 
do? And might this man, mysteriously ap- 
pearing in the desert and drawing greater 
crowds from day to day, be that old prophet 
of whose coming they had heard? 

These and many other words were spoken 
by them, but Jesus did not speak, save now 
and then in answer to some question and 
briefly. Little of the supper did he take for 
one who all day long had laboured with his 
hands. It was not marked that he was 



FROM THE carpenter's BENCH 37 

silent through the evening meal, for often 
he was silent, as one wrapt up in thought. 
When he arose at length, and passed into 
the little chamber that he shared with 
James and Simon, Mary did not seek to 
learn his purpose, but turned her to the 
simple household cares. 

In the evening neighbours came to talk 
of that which now was uppermost in each 
man's mind ; and when they asked for Jesus, 
his brother Joses said that he had gone apart 
somewhere upon the wooded hill behind the 
house, as not infrequently he did at night, 
the day's work being ended. 

At dawn upon the morrow Mary did not 
need to ask what Jesus thought about the 
sudden tidings from the Jordan valley, for 
he was clad as on the feast days, and his 
face was lighted even more than it was wont 
to be. He asked his brothers if they would 
not go with him, obedient to the prophet's 
call, and thus make ready for the coming 
Kingdom, but he urged them not. He said 
he fully believed the work at Jordan was 
ordered of the Lord, the voice Elijah's, and 
that the coming age was nigh. When James 



38 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

and Joses took their scrip and tools and 
started for their daily work, he gave them 
brotherly farewell, and said that if they 
wished to use his newer axe and saw instead 
of theirs, they might. But Simon begged 
to go with Jesus to the Jordan, and his 
mother quickly made such simple prepara- 
tion for the three days' journey as she was 
able. 

When they started forth together, she 
went with them to the highway, and there 
watched until they disappeared. But little 
did she think that from their visit to the 
Jordan there would come what came in 
later days of shame and pain, of bitter strife 
and turmoil, a broken household and a 
broken heart. 

Alone, at twilight of the ninth day, her 
youngest son returned, having had company 
from Jericho until, on nearing Nazareth, 
the road turns off to Sarid and the sea. 
Mary asked where Jesus was, but Simon 
could not tell. He said his brother came 
with him from Jordan unto Jericho, and 
having there commended him to friends 



FROM THE carpenter's BENCH 39 

about to start for Galilee, had gone he knew 
not whither. 

And Simon told her of the prophet, how 
stern and grand he was, and how the people 
trembled as he spoke of sin and judgment; 
how different he was from all the scribes 
and Pharisees. The crowds were just as 
great, he said, as those about the Temple 
at the Passover, and more were coming 
every day along all the roads to Jordan. 

Such was the story Simon told on reach- 
ing home, with many lesser incidents that 
had impressed his boyish mind. But what 
his mother most desired to know — where 
Jesus was, why he had stayed behind, what 
now he thought of John and of the changes 
soon to be — she could not learn from him. 

Then days and weeks went by, and Mary, 
waiting for her son, her eldest child, the 
staff on which she leaned, thought fondly of 
all his radiant boyhood, thought how strong 
and gentle he had ever been, and how his 
father's care for all the household needs had 
been assumed and bravely borne by him 
since that dark summer when the father fell 
asleep. Her home grew lonelier as the days 



40 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

went by and Jesus came not back. They 
who later went from Nazareth to Jordan 
and returned, could tell her nothing of her 
son. In little intervals of rest between her 
household cares she sat where she could 
watch the way, and when awake at night 
she started at each sudden sound about the 
cottage, wondering if he were come. She 
knew it not, yet all her anxious fear and 
loneliness of heart was little by the side of 
that strange, fearful solitude in which her 
son, far ofif from Nazareth, was buried. 



CHAPTER THREE 



THE CHOICE OF WAYS 



CHAPTER THREE 

THE CHOICE OF WAYS 

THE long habit of his youth and early 
manhood, to withdraw from men 
when deeply moved and meditate in solitary 
places, asserted itself with sudden might 
when Jesus, face to face with John at Jor- 
dan, his spirit to its inmost depths exalted 
by the message of the prophet, perceived 
that God was calling him to realise the com- 
ing Kingdom. And when his youngest 
brother, Simon, had been entrusted to the 
care of friends for the return to Nazareth, 
he quickly fled from Jericho, and rested not 
till miles away in the wild middle of a 
naked desert. No sound of man invaded his 
retreat. The tumult by the Jordan, the 
noise of throngs along the highways, the 
questions of excited men, had given place 
to utter silence, and his soul could sink it- 

43 



44 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

self in the holy, yet dread, secret of his 
Messianic call. 

Again and yet again, well nigh continu- 
ously by day and night, the words, ^^Thou 
art my son," which fell upon his soul by 
Jordan, resounded through his spirit. He 
knew the voice that uttered them — the same 
that often in the quiet hours of deepest aspi- 
ration he had heard and welcomed as his 
Father's with peace and joy too great for 
words. He knew the meaning of the mes- 
sage, and all his being rose in mighty ques- 
tionings. 

"I, a carpenter of Nazareth, the prom- 
ised King! I to sit upon the holy hill of 
Zion, and have dominion from the river to 
the ends of the earth! I to build the temple 
of the Lord! To sit upon the throne of 
David! To let the oppressed of Israel go 
free! These hands, that all my life have 
toiled with axe and saw, to wield hence- 
forth a royal sceptre, and kings to fall down 
before me! I to stand as an ensign of the 
peoples, to whom the nations shall seek! 

^'But thy people, O my Father, seek a 
King and Kingdom of this world. They 



THE CHOICE OF WAYS 45 

long to be exalted far above the Gentiles, 
and our rabbis teach us from thy word that 
this shall be when the Messiah comes. Thy 
prophet at the Jordan, the herald of the 
Kingdom, warns of judgment which the 
King will hold at his appearing. But 
where shall it begin? Thy sheep are scat- 
tered and perplext, blinded and torn, and 
know not thy love. The shepherds tend 
them not in wisdom. They are not meet to 
have Messiah come to them in judgment. 
First must he come in blessing, to gather 
the dispersed together and feed them what 
thou givest, to turn the fathers and the chil- 
dren back to thy holy way and set thy King- 
dom up in all our land. But this is not the 
kingly sway thy people covet, the good of 
which they dream, and which our fathers 
have implored of thee so long. 

^ Will they give heed to me unless I raise 
the banner of a king and thrust the Gen- 
tiles forth? But this I cannot do. What 
is my father's house! I have no throne to 
sit upon, no sceptre for my hand, no soldiers 
and no gold. Yea, and I crave none of these 
things. What are they to thy love? Could 



46 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Israel know thee as thou art, the day of his 
deliverance would break at once. And 
shall not the Messiah reveal thy love to 
him? But how?" 

And Jesus was unmindful of the heat of 
day and chill of night and of the hardness 
of the stony couch whereon at times, when 
sore exhausted by the inner struggle, he 
lay down. The bits of bread and fish within 
his scrip were scarcely touched for days, 
no more the honey that his eye, unseeking, 
saw among the rocks along his wandering 
way. 

The dawn of day, the wild grandeur of 
the desert landscape, the far-off beauty of 
the mountain views at evening, the vision of 
God's glory in the stars, which had been 
wont to flood his soul with thoughts un- 
speakable, were all unheeded now. An- 
other world lay round him, and other 
scenes, swift-changing, vast and awful, 
passed before his spirit. He moved through 
deserts fiercer and more lonely than that 
which overlooks the Jordan from the west, 
and felt that gulfs were yawning by his 
pathway far deeper and more deadly than 



THE CHOICE OF WAYS 47 

that which glows and shudders below the 
plains of Judah. But these again were hid- 
den under pleasant scenes that floated past 
his spirit as in a golden haze. 

The little home in Nazareth, the vines 
that he had set and trained, the walnut 
trees and fountain, and the simple, happy 
round of toil for daily bread, appeared to 
him as in a dream, then vanished. After- 
ward, upon the dear familiar ground where 
he had played in childhood, he saw a lordly 
palace that towered high above the village, 
built to stand for many generations. And 
this was his, a country-seat of Israel's King. 

Another palace, statelier yet, arose on 
David's hill, within a city cleansed and 
glorified; and in its high resplendent hall 
were scenes of royal Messianic state, where- 
to all lands and peoples gladly sent their 
richest offerings. These in turn gave way 
to other and more welcome scenes in which 
the Lord's Anointed, acknowledged now of 
all, taught men the sacred law. 

And Jesus said within his heart, ^^Can 
this be gained? Can I fulfil my people's 
hope of outward rank, and then, by means 



48 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

of that, fulfil my own deep longing too? 
Alas! this cannot be. If they, when poor 
and wretched, subject to the Gentile power, 
reject the truth thy prophets have pro- 
claimed, how shall they choose it in the 
glow of pride and pleasure? 

^These visions came not from above: I 
will not look upon them more. They turn 
my thought from thee, who saidst. Thou 
art my son. They wound and blind my 
spirit. 

^^But whither shall I look? How work 
deliverance for thy people? Why am I be- 
wildered thus, and lonely, hungry, helpless? 
Helpless! Is it surely thus with me? Is 
not the might of God bestowed upon his 
King? Will not my word turn stones to 
bread and make these dry ravines o'erflow 
with waters? Shall I then speak and test 
my might, and prove the vision true that 
came to me by Jordan? Nay, how can I 
doubt thy voice, my Father, or thy care? 
How can I cease to rest on thee and do thy 
bidding only, wherein I ever found my life 
made full? I could not listen to the sacred 
call that broke upon my soul beside the 



THE CHOICE OF WAYS 49 

river, I should not dare to think of King 
Messiah's work, unless the King, e'en as a 
little child, were still at every step to have 
the sure guidance of thine eye. 

^'Messiah's work — if not a swift ascent to 
power and a kingly reign, what shall it be? 
How ordered? Where begun? 

^^How fair the years behind, the quiet life 
my soul has lived with thee, in open vision 
of thy truth! O can it be that from this 
very soil shall grow and blossom all the 
sceptre that thy King may wield? And can 
it be that from thy love, the secret thou hast 
spoken to my heart, shall yet be made the 
shining throne of thine Anointed? 

^'I see thy way, my God, and make it 
mine." 

And Jesus slept upon his rocky couch as 
once within the little chamber of the home 
in Nazareth after a long day of toil. 

His people's dream was not for him. The 
path he chose was humble, and perchance 
as lonely as his desert resting place, yet it 
was best, the one sure path on which to 
lead his people forth into the promised 
Kingdom. 



CHAPTER FOUR 



FIRST NOTES OF THE GOSPEL 



CHAPTER FOUR 

FIRST NOTES OF THE GOSPEL 

THE large new synagogue which Caius 
the centurion had built and given to 
Capernaum was thronged the second Sab- 
bath after Jesus had appeared beside the 
lake from his sojourn in the wilderness. 
For he had won disciples, and his name was 
known in every street throughout the town. 
He had called the sons of Zebedee from 
the near shore where they were working on 
their fishing-nets and two other men whose 
boat was anchored half a furlong from the 
pier. And people talked of him more than 
of the splendid merchant caravan which 
passed that morning for Damascus with a 
band of Roman cavalry as guard. 

Jesus went to morning worship with 
Simon, in whose house he had lodged the 
night before. 

As Zebedee was then the ruler of the 

53 



54 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

synagogue, and sat beside the cedar chest 
wherein were kept the sacred rolls, he gave 
a sign that Jesus be led forward to his va- 
cant seat; but he, instead of going, sent for- 
ward another who leaned upon a staff for 
very age, himself remaining there with 
those who stood. 

The house, though next in size to that one 
which the King had lately given to his cap- 
ital Tiberias, was full before the hour of 
worship, and out in front a crowd pressed 
round each door. 

When Zebedee arose and sounded on the 
silver trumpet, all were still. It chanced a 
priest was there that day, and him he asked 
to lead the people in their worship. Con- 
senting, he took his place before the chest, 
and lifting up his hands he spoke two bless- 
ings on the congregation. All then joined 
in the confession which they had from 
Moses : ^^Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God 
is one Jehovah ; and thou shalt love Jehovah 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy might.'' Another 
blessing was spoken by the priest, and after 
that, when all had turned to face the Holy 



FIRST NOTES OF THE GOSPEL 55 

Place on Zion, even those who stood before 
the synagogue as well as those within, he 
spoke the prayer, and all the people said 
Amen. 

But when he prayed, as was their wont, 
that God would cause to flourish the prom- 
ised seed of David, and would speedily 
exalt his horn in Israel's salvation, Zebedee 
the ruler of the house thought of Jesus 
standing there before him, and wondered if 
the prayer would soon be answered. 

Then the seven men whom he had chosen 
for that service took the Law from the at- 
tendant, and read the lesson for the day, 
three verses each, while by the first and last 
a blessing too was spoken, enclosing thus the 
sacred word with benedictions. 

Now the passage for that day when Jesus 
for the first time stood among the congrega- 
tion was that which tells what Moses said 
a little time before his end — the Blessing 
of the tribes. The face of Jesus as he stood 
there by the second pillar in the eastern row 
— there were two rows of pillars in the 
building — often held the gaze of Zebedee; 



56 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

and when the seventh reader read the 
words : 

"The eternal God is thy dwelling place, 
And underneath are the everlasting arms. 
Happy art thou, O Israel; 

Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Jehovah, 
The shield of thy help, 
And the sword of thy excellency " 

when the reader read these words, the face 
of Jesus glowed with peace and quiet joy. 

Then the ruler called him by his name, 
and asked if he would speak unto the people 
on the sacred lesson they had heard, for 
men already called him "rabbi" and heeded 
what he said. So Jesus stepped upon the 
platform, and sat down ; and a great silence 
fell upon the throng. "Blessed art thou, O 
Israel," he said, "for the eternal God is thy 
dwelling place and underneath thee are the 
everlasting arms. Who is like unto thee, a 
people saved by Jehovah." 

Many things he said that morning of Je- 
hovah and his favour which fell upon the 
longing hearts before him as rain upon a 
thirsty land. Words that took new mean- 



FIRST NOTES OF THE GOSPEL 57 

ing on his lips and henceforth, in the mem- 
ory of those who heard him, never ceased 
to shine and beckon as do dear faces that 
have vanished from the earth, were ^^Fa- 
ther," ^^everlasting arms," and ^^Kingdom," 
^4ife," and ^^peace." He blessed the com- 
mon things, man's pain and sorrow. He 
blessed the hidden springs of life. He 
blessed the patient waiting for the Lord. 
And when his lips said ^^blessed," it was as 
though the ear and heart had heard the 
sweetest music. He spoke of God, and said 
that he was present with them in the syna- 
gogue and present with the friends at home, 
his arms beneath them, his Kingdom open 
to all seekers. 

The old man leaning on his staff was lost 
in contemplation of the face of Jesus, and 
the peace of Heaven settled then upon his 
spirit. For when, a few days afterward, his 
children listened at his bedside to catch his 
latest word of benediction, they heard him 
murmur ^Tather," ^^everlasting arms." 
And so he found the Kingdom. 

But not to all within the synagogue was 
Jesus welcome. The voice that soothed one 



58 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

spirit, pierced another as a sword. For 
suddenly a wild and angry shriek rang 
through the house, leaving all breathless, 
fearful, horrified. Those nearest to the 
furious man drew back, as he sprang for- 
ward, clutching fiercely in the air before 
him. He tore his matted beard ; he gnashed 
his teeth, and screamed at Jesus. No one 
laid hand upon him, and he had an open 
way to where the prophet sat. But a name- 
less terror seemed to hold him back, while 
hate ran riot in his hideously contorted face, 
his cries and gesturings. His raging ceased 
a little when his gleaming eyes encountered 
those of Jesus fully; and in this lull, the 
Master, leaning forward in his seat, with 
hand uplifted, speaking calmly but with un- 
measured confidence, charged the demon to 
come forth. At this the wretched man, his 
face as that of one who is tormented greatly, 
cast himself upon the floor of stone, and 
gave a long despairing cry that broke the 
Sabbath calm through half the town. Then, 
as though set free from frightful dreams, 
he raised his head, looked timidly about, 



FIRST NOTES OF THE GOSPEL 59 

and yielded quietly to one who drew him 
back among the throng. 

And Jesus said again, with new meaning 
in his tone, ^^Blessed art thou, O Israel, a 
people saved by Jehovah." Then he arose, 
and with no sign from Zebedee he spoke the 
ancient blessing with full heart, and the 
meeting closed. 

It was not noticed at the time, but later 
Zebedee remembered, that the second lesson 
for the day, the lesson from the prophets, 
was not read that morning. But it was fit- 
ting so, for now again a living prophet 
spoke to men. 

Astonishment held all who saw his deed 
and heard his word. They felt that here 
was power, here was life, here a new kind 
of teaching. It seemed to some as though 
the mighty days of yore were come again, 
when there were men of vision, men to 
whom the spirit of the living God gave 
high authority, bold, heroic men. 

Some ran forth to tell abroad and in their 
homes what they had seen and heard, some 
followed Jesus to the house of Simon. 



CHAPTER FIVE 
THE WIDENING HORIZON 



CHAPTER FIVE 

THE WIDENING HORIZON 

SOME weeks of constant work passed by, 
and Jesus who had travelled far and 
wide through Galilee, declaring the fulfil- 
ment of the ancient promise of a heavenly 
Kingdom and healing men's diseases, was 
back again beside the lake. 

The town was thronged with those who 
watched for his return. No one had ever 
seen such crowds in Galilee, people who 
had come from north and south and from 
beyond the Jordan. Men from Maon and 
Aroer, having heard that one was risen who 
had power to heal, had come a six days' 
journey, bringing with them on their camels 
those who had disease. Men from Jabesh 
and from Succoth in Perea ; men from Car- 
mel and Beth-shean; men from the high- 
lands under Hermon, from Luz and Abel- 
maim; and men from the Syrian coast-land, 

63 



64 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

some on foot with sick folk brought on lit- 
ters, some on beasts of burden, had sought 
the town of Jesus, clamouring for help. 

The market-place no longer held the 
throngs, and Jesus, toward evening of the 
second day since his return — a day of toil 
from early morning on — led them forth 
along the lakeside, southward from the 
lower town, and there addressed them from 
the boat which James had brought him. 

People came and went, some murmuring 
because they could not bring their sick at 
once to Jesus. Why should he stop to talk, 
they said, when he had power to heal dis- 
ease? They had come a toilsome way be- 
cause their need was urgent, yet did he not 
regard them. Others bade the murmurers 
hold their peace, and listen to the prophet's 
words. 

Gradually many boats drew near, some 
coming from the lake to view the scene, a 
fisherman or two in each, some hired for 
the purpose and loaded to the water's edge. 
In one there lay a little girl, smitten with 
some sore disease that the doctors could not 
cure ; and her father slowly worked his boat 



THE WIDENING HORIZON 65 

among the rest, no one opposing, until at 
last it lay but little back of that where Jesus 
stood. And there he waited, watching o'er 
his child. 

Jesus spoke as he had spoken in the syna- 
gogue at first. He called men to the King- 
dom as to their goal : it was the gift of God, 
the place of life. 

To trust the Father fully and be free 
from anxious care, to love each other and 
to work in hope — he said the Kingdom 
would be found by all who walked this way. 

What he himself had learned of God, he 
earnestly desired that men should learn of 
him. 

And as he spoke such words the shadows 
fell across the lake and night was coming 
on. Jesus blessed the multitude with lifted 
hands, and asked his friends to row a little 
space apart. But as he turned to sit — for he 
had stood within the boat, the better thus 
to reach the crowd upon the shore — he saw 
the little sufferer helpless on her pallet, 
saw the patient, trustful pleading of the 
father's eyes, and felt within his heart that 
God would grant him power to heal the 



66 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

child. The boat came close alongside that 
in which the Master sat, he laid his hand 
upon the girl with words of benediction, 
and simply bade the father go in peace. 

That evening Jesus went not back to 
Peter's house to rest, as he was wont to do, 
nor did he even go within the town. He 
left the boat far up the shore, and bidding 
his disciples repair to him at dawn, at a 
convenient spot upon the hill, he went away 
alone. 

Now every house within the town was 
open to the strangers who were there, as 
they are opened in the Holy City at the 
feasts ; but many still could find no shelter, 
and must lodge among the fishers' boats 
along the shore, or in the market-place. 

With earliest glow of day the men who 
slept in front of Peter's house, that they 
might be the first to see the wonder-worker, 
were told that Jesus was not there, but some- 
where on the hill, an hour's walk or more 
toward Hukkok, northward. This word 
was quickly passed along, and men, when 
they had broken bread, set out to find the 
Master. The sons of Zebedee were with 



THE WIDENING HORIZON 67 

the first who started, taking with them 
bread and fish and wine for Jesus and them- 
selves. They thought he would not come 
to town that day, for he had said the night 
before, while with them in the boat, that 
people trode upon each other to be healed 
of their diseases, yet cared but little or 
nothing for the word he spoke of God and 
life. 

The streets, that day, were almost silent 
at the hour of morning prayer. Many shops 
were closed and many nets hung up, their 
owners making holiday at Herod's games, 
or gone forth with the crowd along the 
Hukkok road. 

When Zebedee, who waited in Caper- 
naum until the service in the synagogue was 
ended, reached the hill and joined the ever- 
growing multitude, Jesus, standing by a 
cliff along whose top grew oak and walnut 
trees, was calling those by name whom he 
would have with him, to help him in his 
work. The ruler heard him call his sons, 
and saw them go and take their seats a little 
space before him on the grass. He felt that 
they were worthy of the place, and since he 



68 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

did not dream what lay before them of toil 
and persecution, he was glad the Master put 
their names among the twelve. He knew 
not all the men whom Jesus chose, but 
nearly all, and he was proud of Galilee, 
proud also of his little town beside the lake. 
He thought within his heart that priests and 
scribes and Pharisees and people of Jeru- 
salem, the rich and mighty, were plainly 
not to have the first and best that the Mes- 
siah had for men, should Jesus prove to be 
indeed the King long-promised. 

When at length the twelve were seated 
in a semi-circle before Jesus, he looked on 
them and on the throng behind, and spoke 
great words and wonderful through all the 
morning. 

From where they sat the eye could travel 
far across the crystal lake of Galilee, and 
over many mountains of the homeland and 
Perea, a scene most rich and wide ; but Jesus 
raised his followers' thought to higher, 
broader visions still, to see the beauty of 
the everlasting things in which the soul of 
man was meant to share. The past and fu- 
ture seemed as open to his eye, and all the 



THE WIDENING HORIZON 69 

secrets of the heart, as was the lake to theirs. 
He made them think of that which lay be- 
neath the surface of their lives. He taught 
them that the heart is greater than the Law, 
the synagogue and the Temple — its great- 
ness and its glory this, that it can be like 
God. 

He spoke to them with great authority, 
and said that he was come to realise the 
hopes of men of old and make their vision 
of the truth complete; that on his word 
each man could build what winds and floods 
should never overthrow; and that by those 
who followed him not Israel alone but all 
the earth should be illuminated. 

The words he spoke were near to com- 
mon things, and made the place with all 
around — the larks that sang above, the 
white and purple violets in the grass, the 
thorns and thistles on the rocks — made them 
what they had not been before, instinct with 
higher meaning, epistles of the thoughtful 
care and wisdom of the Father. 

Yet was the Master one with those who 
heard: his speech and dress the same as 
theirs. No thunder followed what he said. 



70 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

The mountains did not quake. His friends 
beheld no armies in the air, no heavenly 
sponsors of his word or guards to shield him 
from all foes. But when at last he spoke a 
blessing and was still, they were astonished 
more than words could measure, and 
thought that Abraham and Moses too were 
less than he. 



CHAPTER SIX 



WARNING VOICES 



CHAPTER SIX 

WARNING VOICES 

WHEN the rulers in Jerusalem had 
heard from Galilee that by the 
words and deeds of one called Jesus a great 
excitement had arisen about the lake and 
back among the mountains, there went from 
time to time both priests and Pharisees, to 
watch him closely and report at home. 
They did not look for any good from one 
who set himself above their best and wis- 
est, a man untaught in all the wisdom of the 
rabbis and sprung from Nazareth. His 
deeds might awe and dazzle Galilean fish- 
ermen, but would they stand the test of those 
who knew the Holy Law and understood 
the way to exorcise the demons? 

One of the first of those who went to spy 
upon the northern prophet in his work — the 
scribe Hannasi, a zealous, conscientious 
man, who strove to keep the Law exactly — 

73 



74 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

reached Capernaum the very day that Jesus 
came again from wandering in the high- 
lands of his native Galilee. The morning 
after, going with the crowd, he found that 
Jesus made his home with one called Simon 
in a little house of brick and wood between 
the market and the lake. Here, early as 
it was, the prophet sat and taught. The 
room was full, and throngs before the house 
were waiting, somewhat noisily, till Jesus 
should come out. 

Hannasi reached the open door at length 
by pressing close to those from whom he 
feared defilement, the common village folk 
and publicans, and thence, on looking in, 
he saw the man of whom the land was filled 
with rumours. Two other scribes were 
there already, one of them a Pharisee, and 
with their help he got inside the door. He 
did not hear the Master many minutes un- 
disturbed. For soon a heavy noise and 
voices on the roof drew every one's atten- 
tion; and as a large unwieldy object swung 
out free above the little court, cutting ofif 
the light, some people feared the house was 
breaking down and crowded through the 



WARNING VOICES 75 

door into the street. This left more space 
for those who stayed, to see what then 
befell. 

Upon a peasant's cot let down by ropes 
put under near the ends and firmly held by 
four men on the roof there lay a man of 
middle age, silent and seeming helpless. 
When lowered to the floor, he moved his 
eyes from side to side, and slightly too his 
head, until he saw the one he sought, and 
then his eyes were fixed. 

Hannasi and the others with him watched 
intently that no word or slightest motion 
of the so-called prophet should escape them. 
When Jesus spoke to him who lay upon the 
pallet, their worst opinion of him grew at 
once tenfold more black, for plainly he 
blasphemed. He told the man what only 
God might tell him, as they thought, — told 
him that his sins were pardoned. When 
Jesus read their thoughts upon their scowl- 
ing faces, he justified his word of pardon 
by a gracious act of healing. The man 
arose, took up his pallet from the floor, and 
went forth to the street. 

The crowd were taken by this deed of 



76 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Jesus, and said the like had not been seen in 
Israel; to the scribes, however, no such act, 
though seeming good, could hide that word 
of blasphemy which he had spoken. They 
straightway left the house in holy indigna- 
tion, and Akiba, the Pharisee, most zealous 
of the group, set out that hour to carry word 
to those who ruled in Zion. 

Hannasi tarried yet two Sabbaths in 
Capernaum, and had his thought of Jesus 
only more and more confirmed. He set at 
naught the fasts which all the people of the 
law held sacred, who knew and cared what 
ancient men had taught, — the fasts upon 
the second day and fifth of every week; 
but worst of all he set at naught the holy 
Sabbath day itself, which Moses had or- 
dained for an everlasting statute. Hannasi 
saw the men who followed Jesus pluck 
heads of wheat and rub it in their hands 
upon the day of rest, and he forbade them 
not, but took from Peter's hand and ate the 
grain himself. But rubbing wheat to shell 
it is work, the scribes maintained, and one 
who works upon the Sabbath ought to die. 
And when he charged the prophet with this 



WARNING VOICES 77 

wicked deed of his disciples, he was bold 
and answered him as though he thought the 
Sabbath day itself were less in worth than 
he, yea, less in worth than any common man. 
No one had ever uttered such presumptuous 
words and lived. Hannasi wondered that 
no sudden stroke of judgment fell upon 
him, as when the earth engulfed the 
f roward sons of Aaron. 

Again, the following Sabbath and even in 
the sacred synagogue, he broke the Holy 
Law, for one who had a withered hand he 
healed. There was no need, the scribes de- 
clared ; this man could well have waited till 
the holy day was past. But Jesus healed 
him then and there, as though to make it 
plain to all that he regarded not what every 
scribe held sacred. It seemed to them that 
he was seeking to blot out what all their 
fathers loved and cherished. As he broke 
the Sabbath law, of all their laws the high- 
est and the holiest, he surely would not stop 
at any other, but would try to overturn them 
all. 

That day they formed a league against 
him, ten of them, Herodians and Pharisees, 



78 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

men who had been sharply hostile to each 
other until a common peril made them one. 
For the Herodians held Herod for a lawful 
king, sprung from Jewish stock, though his 
mother was an Idumean, but the Pharisees 
spurned him as a Gentile. These men 
sought henceforth how they might destroy 
Jesus and might do it quickly. Other dan- 
gers which they saw for land and people 
were as naught to this new and deadly peril, 
they said, and for the time should be for- 
got. And so their plan was made to watch 
his words and deeds for evidence against 
him, to challenge his authority at every 
step, and warn the people not to heed his 
teaching on pain of bitterest penalties. They 
all agreed that Jesus wrought his signs 
with Satan's aid, to blind the minds of men 
to doctrines which would quench the fire of 
Israel's hope and make the chosen people 
one with all the godless nations. 

In search of facts that they might use to 
gain their end, Hannasi left the lake, the 
second Sabbath being past, and travelled up 
to Nazareth. He found the rustic home of 
Jesus, saw his brothers at their lowly toil, 



WARNING VOICES 79 

and questioned them about his work and 
teaching. They seemed not proud of him, 
at least the older ones, and knew but little of 
his deeds. Hannasi told what he had lately 
seen down by the lake, and how the scribes 
and Pharisees, the careful guardians of the 
Law, were deeply moved and fearful lest 
the judgment threatened to false prophets 
should yet come down on Jesus and on all 
his house. Perhaps this saying stirred the 
brothers up — and through them their 
mother — to seek for Jesus and to bring him 
back to Nazareth and a quiet life. Hannasi 
heard of their attempt to do this, and how 
they said, quite openly, they thought that 
Jesus was beside himself, his head turned 
by what had come to him at Jordan, when 
he met the desert preacher. He also heard 
that Nazareth, the very people w^ho had 
known the son of Joseph from a child, who 
knew his parents and his family, would not 
listen to his claim. They held him for a 
carpenter and for nothing more. For when, 
one time, he openly declared, within their 
little synagogue, that he fulfilled the an- 
cient prophecies of one on whom the Spirit 



8o JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

of the Lord should rest, and when he inti- 
mated that his townsmen were not worthy 
of him, they spurned him and his healing 
ministry. 

These events, of which Hannasi heard, 
strongly confirmed his judgment of the 
man, and made him still more hostile to 
the work and claim of Jesus. He then re- 
turned to Zion, and brought before the 
rulers all that he had seen and heard. 

They counselled daily how to break the 
fatal spell which Jesus by his works and 
words had cast on plain, unlettered men, 
and how to end his life. Hannasi had no 
doubt that Jesus was a false Messiah, and 
would at length be crushed, as others like 
him had been ; and yet at times he marvelled 
in his spirit that Beelzebub should do so 
many deeds of mercy. Nor could he under- 
stand the face of Jesus, which sometimes 
haunted him. It did not seem to 
be the face of one who walked in dark- 
ness. But these thoughts, when they arose 
within him, were quickly overcome by facts 
conspicuous and damning. Jesus had blas- 
phemed and had boldly set the Law at 



WARNING VOICES 8 1 

naught in many other points. To spread 
his evil doctrines he had formed a band of 
twelve disciples, who daily sought to turn 
the multitudes away from ancient customs. 
Soon all godliness would be destroyed 
among the people, unless this peasant, 
strongly aided by the subtle foe of truth, 
could be cast down. Therefore Hannasi and 
the leaders of the Jewish Church, thinking 
this a work well pleasing unto God, sought 
the death of Jesus, and they did not seek it 
long in vain. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 



THE GALILEAN CRISIS 



CHAPTER SEVEN 

THE GALILEAN CRISIS 

THE fame of Jesus had at length been 
carried to the utmost bounds of Gali- 
lee. The men whom he had chosen and 
sent out to be swift heralds of the Kingdom, 
announcing its approach by word and deed, 
had borne their message from the lakeside 
to the north and west, and had returned to 
Capernaum, as Jesus had directed. He met 
them there in Peter's house, and heard the 
story of their work — ^where they by twos 
had been, what welcome they had found, 
and what men said about the coming King- 
dom and its King. 

Their hearts were glad, and Jesus felt 
their joy. He saw in them a hope of better 
days, and in their work a promise that his 
Galilee, though many of its sons were unre- 
sponsive, might yet become the basis of his 
Kingdom. Jerusalem, its foes and unbelief 

85 



86 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

and scorn, was far away and far beneath this 
radiant mount of vision which rose upon the 
trust and enthusiasm of his young disciples. 
These untaught peasants who had walked 
with him, these artisans and fishermen, 
had now begun to see what scribes and 
Pharisees, the wise and understanding of 
the earth, knew not and could not know. 
And Jesus felt new gladness in his mission, 
felt a wondrous deepening sense of power 
and surer confidence that he within him- 
self possessed the Kingdom of the Father. 
To share that heavenly Kingdom in its 
strength and beauty, one needed but to bear 
his yoke ; and some about him, though half 
in ignorance of the real truth at work upon 
them, were learning this great secret. 

When night was now far spent, they 
wished each other peace, having first agreed 
upon a quiet day across the lake, secure 
from crowding, clamorous throngs, for this 
was Jesus' wish. But things fell out far 
other than they hoped. 

The following day broke fair, and earlier 
than its wont the town was all astir because 
its famous prophet had returned. By ones 



THE GALILEAN CRISIS 87 

and twos, from Peter's home and Zebedee's 
and other points, the little band of hopeful 
men sought out the chosen rendezvous upon 
the northernmost and least frequented pier. 
One boat took all, and they were soon afloat, 
but not unnoticed. Word passed swiftly 
through the town that Jesus had gone up the 
shore, his twelve with him, and many peo- 
ple started off at once along the highway, 
keeping still the boat in eye. 

As it went, the throng increased from 
every side — the shore was densely popu- 
lated — until it grew a long and motley cav- 
alcade. Some ran ahead, and shouted to 
the boat to stop, and blessed the name of 
Jesus. Some were borne on litters, sick 
who hoped for healing and who would not 
lose a day, yea, nor a single hour. And 
bands of pilgrims who had started early for 
Jerusalem, coming down the valley from 
the highlands, fell in with the procession, 
and lent the scene the colours of their holi- 
day attire. 

When past the entrance of the Jordan to 
the lake of Galilee, the boat was plainly 
headed for the shore within a little bay be- 



88 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

low Bethsaida; and many, seeing this, ran 
on ahead and reached the landing place in 
time to welcome Jesus. The boat was 
drawn up on the beach, and Jesus, giving up 
the plan with which he left Capernaum, 
started for the higher ground beyond the 
city, eastward. There, with all the glory 
of the lake and shore in view below, he 
sat and taught and healed. 

The day at last was waning, but the 
crowds, especially the men, stayed on, un- 
mindful of the hour. They asked each 
other if the Kingdom were at hand. The 
signs which had been wrought upon the sick 
were great, they said; the prophet's chosen 
band had gone through Galilee, proclaim- 
ing the fulfilment of the appointed time; 
and yet he raised no standard. Yea, and 
stranger still, he said no word about a King 
on David's throne, no word of thrusting off 
the shameful Roman yoke and making Zion 
mistress of the earth. But ever of the heart 
he spoke, of trust in God, of serving one an- 
other. The stories that he told to men as 
well as women were not of deeds of valour 
on the battle-field, not tales of mighty cap- 



THE GALILEAN CRISIS 89 

tains who won against great odds, nor won- 
ders in the earth and air wrought by the 
mysterious Prince and Hero for whom they 
longed; no, they were stories of lost sheep 
and mustard seed, of tares and leaven and 
nets, of beggars and Samaritans. He 
wanted men to follow him, and yet to stay 
at home, and do their work as hitherto, and 
pay their tax, and let the Gentiles rule. 
Was this because he feared to take the step 
they wished to see him take? Then it was 
theirs to act, to show him that their zeal and 
strength were equal to the need. His ban- 
ner as Messiah once set up, all Galilee 
would rise and bear it on to victory. So 
ran the tenor of their blind enthusiasm, and 
the excitement grew with every minute. 

The sun was now below the western 
mountains, and the quiet lake was all aglow 
from shining clouds. It was a sight to 
soothe the spirit, blending with the words 
of Jesus. But there upon the hillside a 
mighty passion swayed the leaders and 
many others in the great throng. It was no 
soft and peaceful scene that met the eye of 



90 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Jesus, nor was it one to make him glad at 
heart. 

The meaning of his signs had been mis- 
read. Not him and his high message of the 
Father did this excited crowd desire, but 
only what his arm might bring of earthly 
place and power. 

He called the twelve around him, and 
bade them take the boat for home; and 
when they begged to stay with him, for they 
had felt the electric current that swept the 
crowd, he spoke insistently, constraining 
them to go. 

Then Jesus turned to send the multitude 
away, for the shadows thickened and he was 
weary and disappointed, but they had found 
a leader now, and crying, ^'Hail! King 
Messiah!" they thronged about him with 
many words of praise and hot appeals to 
Galilean patriotism. Their counsel was to 
take him back in triumph to Capernaum. 
When once he saw their loyalty, they fan- 
cied he would yield to them, accept a crown, 
and reign with mighty power. 

So poorly did they know him! This 
counsel of their hearts was only evil in his 



THE GALILEAN CRISIS 9 1 

sight, a counsel long since faced and for- 
ever put beneath his feet when he was in 
the desert. And poorly did they gauge the 
strength of Jesus in thinking they could 
bend his will to theirs. As well attempt to 
turn the rushing Jordan back upon itself, 
or lift Mt. Hermon from its rocky base! 

He waived them ofif in silent sorrow. 
When their eyes met his, and spirit meas- 
ured spirit, they felt their helplessness. No 
man laid hand upon him, and when he 
sought the darkening mountain, no one fol- 
lowed far. Slowly, with mutterings of dis- 
appointment and of scorn, the crowd dis- 
persed, and slowly did he climb the rocky 
way to solitude. Alone there, yet not alone, 
he thought upon the mournful crisis of the 
day. 

These people plainly wished what he 
could never give, nay, would not for the 
very love he bore them; and what to him 
was dear beyond all price was naught to 
them. They turned away. And would his 
chosen ones be strong enough to stand alone 
and face an ebbing tide? The future of his 
Kingdom hinged on that; and so his thought 



92 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

and care must be henceforth for them, to 
mould their cherished dream into a form 
more worthy of their God. 

Thus meditating, as he looked below, he 
saw his band still on the lake — the moon 
was nearly full — and they were struggling 
against the wind, hard in upon the northern 
shore. He ended then his solitary vigil, and 
went to their relief. His earthly hope was 
in the little boat upon the tossing, white- 
capped waves. 



CHAPTER EIGHT 



THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED 

A MONTH went by, and we behold a 
different scene. The place is still — 
the lower eastern shore of the Lake of Gali- 
lee across from Kedesh, two hours' walk 
from the Jordan. A boat is drawn upon 
the beach, and near it, by a clump of olean- 
der bushes, Jesus sits with those few men 
whose hearts he seeks to bind unto himself 
with bonds so strong that they will hold 
through any storm. 

The summer day had passed with quiet 
talk, as many other days since Jesus with 
the twelve, his public ministry in Galilee 
being ended, had gone across the border of 
the Gentiles, far northward from the Tyrian 
Stairs and even to the region of Sidon. In 
all that walk along the western sea, and 
later over mountain roads remote and wild, 
his daily thought had been to breathe his 

95 



96 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

spirit into those who journeyed with him. 
Serving them in little ways, knitting them 
together, teaching them from wayside texts 
how near the Father is, how merciful and 
kind, he sowed their minds broadcast with 
seed that he had garnered up through years 
of earnest thought and life in ever deepen- 
ing fellowship with God. 

And so the summer day had come and 
nearly gone beside the dear familiar lake. 
At length the sound of oars was heard, and 
soon a boat, approaching from the west, was 
dragged ashore near that of Jesus and the 
twelve. The men it brought were foes to 
Jesus, sent out to get fresh proof by which 
the sanhedrin might cast him down to 
death. 

'Teace be to you," the leader said, and 
Jesus answered, ^Teace to you." Then 
asked he what they sought of him. To this 
the leader of the band replied, "We seek 
a sign on which our faith may rest secure. 
If thou art he who comes to rule in Zion, 
the one our fathers hoped for, then show a 
sign, and leave us not in doubt" 

But Jesus knew this ready plea for signs. 



THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED 97 

and knew the men who made it, zealous 
for the Law indeed, yet blind toward God. 
He saw beneath the plea, deep in the eyes 
of those who stood before him, a glowing 
fire of hate whose flame would some time 
smite him to the earth — he saw it, but he 
trembled not. ^Why seek a sign," he said, 
^'yet scorn the many signs that I have 
given already, the mighty works of mercy 
wrought among you? My God will never 
give the sign you seek because your hearts 
are turned away from him and set on evil. 
But yet the day will come when they who 
face the light with pure desire shall see a 
sign in my appearance like the sign of 
Jonah." 

Having uttered this dark word, he bade 
his friends embark — the hour was late — 
and while their boat moved off the men on 
shore threw after Jesus many an angry 
threat and scornful taunt. The darkness 
was now settling fast upon the lake, and 
Jesus and his little band were hushed with 
solemn thoughts. They saw his way grow 
perilous and lone from day to day. The 
ardor of the North had cooled since Jesus 



98 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Utterly refused to wear a crown; the bit- 
terness of those who ruled in Judah and 
Jerusalem, as had been seen just now be- 
side the lake, had grown more deep and 
active. Peter and the others faced the com- 
ing days with many anxious questionings 
and fears. They thought within them- 
selves, 'Terhaps we had done better with 
our nets, our figs, and olives, on our little 
farms, than following these old visions of 
a coming King who never comes, these 
dreams our fathers dreamed." 

But Jesus knew their mood: he felt their 
lightest doubt. He saw all they could see 
or dimly feel, and more. He saw the 
wreckage of their dearest hopes cast up 
along the fearful shore of death. He saw 
beyond that shore a brightening sky above 
a new-born earth. These friends of his 
should walk that earth, and see that bright- 
ening sky, and gather even from that fear- 
ful shore of death the blossoms of a purer 
hope, a larger and a sweeter faith, than they 
had lost. He saw, and from the vision he 
distilled a tender word of comfort, courage, 
cheer, and suited it to each disciple's need. 



THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED 99 

Around them, close and ever closer, for the 
chill and fear of all their earthly night, 
he drew the mantle of his Father's love. 

At last they came to shore in Peter's 
town, and parted for the night. But Jesus 
would not tarry here again; his work in 
street and synagogue, and in the wider field 
of Galilee, was done. And so when morn- 
ing came he left the town, and with the 
twelve set off for Merom and the north, to 
be alone with them. He must disclose the 
fate he saw awaiting him, but not until his 
friends were strong enough to hear without 
surrender of their confidence in him. 

At times the twelve had thought him the 
Messiah of their own long hopes, and had 
looked from day to day to see him mani- 
fest himself as King by some stupendous 
act and open proclamation. In this belief 
they went through Galilee, and preached 
and healed with power. But now, by slow 
degrees, as they had walked more quietly 
with Jesus, a change had come upon them. 
Their dream of earthly glory had faded 
somewhat, while in the foreground of their 
thought a mystery of suffering had arisen, 



lOO JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

vague and indistinct and dreadful. Their 
hope indeed still lived within their hearts, 
but ere it could be realised, their Master 
and perhaps themselves must meet they 
knew not what of shame and loss. They 
shrank from knowing. 

Jesus saw this change come over his dis- 
ciples, and in it saw a ground of hope. He 
had not asked to see the secrets of their 
hearts: he had not ever in the slightest 
measure sought to force their confidence. 
His own ideal of the heavenly Kingdom 
he had lived out among them day by day, 
and waited for its charm to touch and 
mould their spirits and to beget in them a 
deathless love like that which filled his life. 

He saw that Judas lagged behind the 
rest, that he still held unchanged his Mes- 
sianic hope, and now was more confused 
than they by what was taking place. But 
yet he sought to win and hold the heart of 
Judas too, and carry him along at last to 
his own higher thought 

Thus they journeyed slowly on, now rec- 
ognised and greeted, now besought to come 



THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED lOI 

aside and heal, but yielding not to such re- 
quests. 

The second day they came to Dan, and 
lodged with one whose only son had been 
restored to health by Jesus on his early tour 
through northern Galilee. Then onward 
past the splendid home of Philip with its 
heathen shrines of costly marble, and up 
a valley northward through the foothills of 
Mt. Hermon. 

Resting by the wayside when the sun was 
highest, where a brook and shade invited, 
Jesus blessed their humble fare, as he was 
wont to do, and afterward in frank disclo- 
sure of his inmost thought he talked about 
the Kingdom and their common needs. He 
felt that they were nearer drawn to him 
than they had ever been, that he himself 
was more to them — at least to some of them 
— than their old hope of earthly glory, and 
so he led them on to face the vital question. 

He asked what others thought of him and 
of his work; and answers various by various 
ones were given, but all to him were hol- 
low, disappointing words. For some said 
he was John the Baptist come to life, others 



I02 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Elijah, or at least some ancient prophet. 
Thus all, or all who spoke their thought of 
him, had failed to see him as he was, had 
failed to grasp the message that he brought. 
The people waited still for one to come, one 
greater far than Jesus, because a kingdom 
of this world was their desire, a Gospel of 
triumphant force and ease for Israel alone. 
Such was the judgment of the crowd, re- 
ported by the men whose very presence here 
among the mountains was proof that they 
felt something when with Jesus which the 
crowd felt not. Then the Master, with a 
longing in his spirit deep as life itself, said 
to the twelve, ^^But ye, who say ye that I 
am?" And quick the answer came "Mes- 
siah!" Lips of one, but eyes of more than 
one declared it; and the wells of joy within 
the heart of Jesus overflowed. Mt. Her- 
mon shouted to the highest sky "Messiah!" 
All the listening hills re-echoed it. The 
birds broke forth in wondrous song. The 
banners of a myriad trees were waved in 
exultation. Far away across the heights of 
Galilee and Judah fell the splendour of 
another and a better day, whose secret Jesus 



THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED 103 

saw within the eyes of those before him. 
He knew the answer was of God and felt 
at last a rock beneath his feet. 

This loyalty to him at sacrifice of former 
hopes, this loyalty to one whom men on 
every side rejected, and on whose lonely 
way the hate of scribe and priest and Phari- 
see was casting ever thickening gloom — for 
this he thanked his God, in this he saw what 
should survive the overwhelming flood of 
woe now swiftly drawing near; and, firmly 
set on this divine and living base, he felt 
that he should build a Kingdom that could 
not be moved. 

This was the day and hour when Jesus 
felt it safe to tell his friends the worst, and 
teach them how to face with him the total 
seeming wreck of all his toil. 



CHAPTER NINE 



THE DARKENING WAY 



CHAPTER NINE 

THE DARKENING WAY 

FACING ever southward with Jeru- 
salem in view and the paschal feast, 
which now was drawing near, Jesus and his 
little band had reached the eastern slope of 
Tabor, and had halted for the night They 
might have planned to lodge somewhere 
with friends, but Jesus wished to pass 
through Galilee as far as possible unseen. 
They sought therefore a sheltered spot 
above the road, beneath a canopy of oak, 
and where they had a view across Es- 
draelon, far and wide. 

Their evening meal and food for coming 
days, with modest store of money, they had 
brought from Zebedee's and other friendly 
homes beside the lake where they had spent 
the night before. And some of the disci- 
ples still felt the sting of that rebuke which 
then had overtaken their proud dispute on 

107 



Io8 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

rank among themselves, and some were 
touched more deeply that the Master 
seemed to make no difference between his 
chosen few and that man, all unknown, who 
boldly used his name in works of mercy. 
These things had made the band more silent 
than was their wont. The thought of Jesus 
crossed their own confusingly and often. 

Two Sabbaths now had passed since, in 
the highlands of the Jordan, Jesus had be- 
gun to teach the twelve about his fate, and 
each day's journey toward Judah made yet 
deeper their amazement and their fear. As 
children they had learned that their Mes- 
siah would abide in glory upon the throne 
of David. This the rabbis long had taught 
in Israel. Their King must live and reign 
through many years — hundreds or perhaps 
thousands — reign till all the earth save Gog 
in Magog on the farthest borders should 
own his sway and bring his people richest 
gifts. And then, the last and bitterest foes 
overthrown, the earth renewed by God 
should be the home of Israel and his King 
through all the coming age. Had not an- 
cient saints and prophets looked for such a 



THE DARKENING WAY 109 

consummation in the end? Their King 
should rule among his enemies; his throne 
should stand forever, and his Kingdom be 
a Kingdom everlasting. So had they read 
within their holy word itself; their fathers 
too had died in this belief. 

But what is this they hear from Jesus? 
He must be rejected by his own and put to 
death! Slain, and yet Messiah! Slain, yet 
King forever! Who can bear such contra- 
dictions? What may be the throne of one 
rejected? What the royal reign of one 
whom men have put to death? 

They reasoned thus, and brooded many 
an hour in silence o'er the Master's word. 
Amazed, bewildered, apprehensive, day 
by day they followed on, constrained by 
love and by the little gleam of light that 
seemed to lie beside the dreadful thought 
of death. They could not tell what Jesus 
meant by ^^rising from the dead," and yet 
the word seemed hopeful. Once, moreover, 
they had heard him speak of coming in the 
Father's glory, and this vague saying gave 
them comfort as they pondered sadly on the 
days to be. In some mysterious way, per- 



no JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

haps through awful darkness, they might 
reach the light, and all the dear old dream 
of Israel's heart be realised at last. But 
dim and vague this gleam of hope appeared 
beyond the heavy shadows. Jesus read their 
sore confusion in their eyes and tones, and 
with unwearied patience strove to keep 
their trust and stay their minds on God. 

That night on Tabor, when their meal 
was ended, they looked together out across 
the ancient battlefield where Israel had lost 
and won in days long past, and far beyond 
it saw the light go out along the western 
sky. The sea wind rose and murmured 
through the branches overhead; and, wear- 
ied, all but Jesus early fell asleep. He 
watched, and prayed for strength, and 
thought of Nazareth, which he had now 
left behind forever. But tender longings 
and regrets soon lost themselves in the deep 
confidence that from his darkening way a 
light would break at last upon the eyes of 
dear ones in the old familiar town, yea, and 
upon the eyes of many in the land who now 
regarded him with bitter scorn and hate, a 
light moreover that should spread and grow 



THE DARKENING WAY III 

on earth forever because it lights the holy 
path between the Father and his wandering 
children. 

The morrow brought to the disciples 
fresh proof that their old dreams of Mes- 
sianic triumph must be revised if they were 
still to look to Jesus as the man to change 
these dreams to firm realities. For, gazing 
back upon Gennesaret, as they reached a 
height from which the eye ranged far away 
to northward up the Jordan valley, Jesus 
uttered words of condemnation on those 
towns which, having seen his signs and 
heard his message, had not cared to heed 
it- And thus he owned the failure of his 
work for them, from which event his fol- 
lowers might infer what they had ground 
to hope from any work that he might do in 
hostile Judah. 

Later, when his messengers brought word 
that they could find no lodging for him in 
the neighbouring village of Samaria, and 
craved his sanction to destroy the town with 
fire from heaven, he refused. Instead of 
taking vengeance on these surly foes of 
Israel, he turned upon his messengers with 



112 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

words of sad rebuke. Was his the spirit of 
Elijah, to burn his foes and call the act 
God's judgment on them? And could the 
Father's Kingdom ever be built up by those 
who answered hate with hate? Alas, that 
his near friends should for an instant think 
that he could stoop to such a loveless deed! 

Rejected thus upon the border of Sa- 
maria, Jesus and his little band went down 
to Jordan and journeyed thence through 
Gilead. And here, as he had done before 
in Galilee, he walked from place to place, 
and taught men of the Father. The note of 
urgency in what he said was even stronger 
now than in the earlier days. The yearning 
of his heart to touch the hidden springs in 
man by which the life is turned to God 
seemed deeper and more tender. 

Spring's first touch was seen along the 
wayside as they came to Jabesh Gilead. 
Pomegranates had begun to show their scar- 
let buds, anemones and violets of divers 
hues were scattered over every sunny bank. 
The fields of early wheat were green and 
beautiful. 

Two days had Jesus spent in Jabesh, and 



THE DARKENING WAY 1 13 

now Upon the morning of the third he sat 
beneath the palms outside the town, and 
taught a little company that gathered with 
the twelve. His plan to go that morning as 
far as Pella all the village knew; and when 
at last he arose and spoke a blessing on his 
hearers, and started with the twelve, a 
group of mothers timidly approached, and 
begged that he would lay his hands upon 
their little ones in prayer. His face and 
way and words had made them feel that 
he was nearer God than they. His blessing 
then might shield their children in the day 
of evil, or even make them good and great. 
A chance like this would surely never come 
to them again, and eagerly they craved the 
boon. 

It seemed to some of Jesus' friends a thing 
too slight to stop their Master and them- 
selves, and they presumed to waive the sup- 
pliants back. So little did they feel as Jesus 
felt, or think as Jesus thought! It had not 
pained him more to burn the town that 
turned him from its gate at night, refusing 
shelter, than here deny the sweet petition 
of these mother-hearts. No man or woman 



114 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

yet had asked of him what he would give 
so gladly. To turn away this prayer, and 
let the mothers take their children home 
unblessed — these little ones with fresh re- 
ceptive souls — would mar each word of 
love he ever spoke and hide from him the 
face of God. 

And so beside the palms of Jabesh, in the 
fragrance of the morning, Jesus let the 
mothers put their children in his arms, and 
with deep emotion, calling each by name, 
he blessed them, claimed them for his 
Kingdom, and departed. 

Then the scarlet deepened on the buds 
of the pomegranates, and the tide of life 
rose higher on the hills and in the meadows. 

Jesus came that day to Pella near the 
Jordan, passed the following night, and in 
the morning purchased food by him who 
bore the purse, to take upon the further 
journey — dates and nuts, wheaten bread, 
and fish from Galilee. 

When ready to resume their march, they 
saw two Pharisees approaching from the 
north with rapid steps, who, after friendly 
greeting given, said they came from Herod's 



THE DARKENING WAY I15 

capital, Tiberias. They knew a man at 
court, they said, one whom the king kept 
near himself, with whom he counselled 
daily on affairs of state. This friend had 
spoken words which brought them thither 
with all haste. ^The king," said they, ^^has 
heard much evil of thee. Rabbi, and seeks 
thy death. He will not longer harbour in 
his realm one whom Jerusalem is eager to 
destroy. He much misjudges thee, we 
know, believing all thy foes have said; but 
flee, we pray, from his domain, and save 
thy life. We fear his messengers may come 
at once, this very day: therefore, escape.'' 
Then some of the disciples, fearing for 
their Master, wished that he would heed 
this kindly word, but wondered whither 
they could go for safety. But Jesus had no 
fear. He knew his work was not yet wholly 
done, and felt that yonder in Jerusalem the 
end must be, not here by Jordan. No force 
or craft of Herod could abridge the few 
remaining days he had in which to serve 
his fellow-men. And saying this he jour- 
neyed slowly down the river with the 
twelve, and came at night to Succoth, near 



Il6 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

the Jabbok, where the lofty mountain wall 
is broken on the east. Up that defile and 
out upon the boundless table-land beyond 
the reach of Herod and the Jews it had 
been easy for the Lord to flee with those 
who loved him best; and there in some se- 
cluded spot to live and teach the things of 
God through many years, and gather to 
himself at length a multitude of followers, 
and reign. But such a thought, if it arose, 
was quickly put away — a lure of Satan, not 
a voice from God. 

Then they journeyed on from Succoth 
southward, and slept where night o'ertook 
them, near the ford of Jordan, east from 
Jericho. They had no shelter save the 
olive branches overhead, no couches but the 
grass; yet straitness of this kind they well 
had borne, young men and hardy as they 
were, had not their spirits felt the chill of 
coming days. This lengthened out the 
night and made their loneliness more lonely 
still. 

But when the morning came, and Jesus, 
strong and hopeful, blessed the bread, they 



THE DARKENING WAY II7 

lifted up their heads again, and tried to 
think their fears were much too dark. 

And here, eight days before the paschal 
feast, they joined the pilgrim caravan from 
Galilee. Loud shouts arose when it was 
known that Jesus was among them. For 
strange though Jesus seemed, and no Mes- 
siah in the eyes of most who sought the 
feast, his Galileans held him still a man of 
wondrous power, who did great honour to 
their name. 

Jesus saw his mother and Salome, walked 
with them and talked of many things, while, 
scattered here and there along the line, the 
twelve found other friends and eager audi- 
ence for all they had to say of Jesus. As 
they went on, Salome with her sons, when 
parted now a little space from others, asked 
the Master for a boon. She knew her sons 
were near to him — none other of the twelve 
as near save Peter, and him she thought less 
fitted than her sons to serve in highest places 
of the Kingdom soon to be. Hence she 
sought for them the seats of honour in that 
Kingdom, the posts of highest influence and 
richest gain, though she knew that Jesus 



Il8 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

had refused a crown and did not speak of 
royal state. Her sons by eager looks made 
this request their own. Yet they had heard 
the Master say that he must die; that they 
who followed him must bear the cross and 
suffer persecution; yes, and that his King- 
dom was within the heart. All this they 
knew; and yet so strong the ancient hope 
within their bosoms, so vague their appre- 
hension of the Master's thought, that they 
could ask of him this earthly boon, and 
think that he would give them outward rule 
over their fellow-men and even over their 
brothers in the inner circle of the Master's 
chosen band! 

With love and sorrow in his voice Jesus 
told them that along his way — a way they 
did not understand as yet — their feet should 
walk indeed; but God, not he, must give 
the seats of honour in the Kingdom of the 
future. Of this, however, let them be as- 
sured, that the highest seats should be for 
those who gave their lives to service in com- 
pletest love. Thus he answered their re- 
quest. 

Passing splendid villas set in palms, the 



THE DARKENING WAY II9 

pilgrims came to Jericho, and many people 
thronged the streets to see the joyous caval- 
cade of rustic Galileans, and notably to see 
the prophet Jesus, for they had heard that 
he was in the crowd. 

That night he lodged with one of Caesar's 
servants, one of those who were despised by 
all who held themselves for upright pious 
Jews. And some who saw where he had 
gone to lodge declared it was a shame for 
him to lower himself and all his friends by 
lodging with a renegade, a Jew who was 
no Jew, but worse than Gentile dogs. If 
he would only pay respect, they said, to 
what the best in Israel thought fit and right, 
he might have any place of power he 
wished. 

But Jesus heeded not this murmuring. 
The man of whom he asked a lodging was 
the first, if not the only one, he saw in 
Jericho who really wanted him as guest. 
To him, therefore, he went with joy, ful- 
filling thus his holy work. And so it came 
about that he who was anointed to be the 
King of Kings, to have a throne more last- 
ing far and glorious than that in Rome on 



I20 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

which Tiberius sat, went, a lowly pilgrim, 
and slept beneath the roof of one of Rome's 
most petty officers! 

The Sabbath rest was kept by Jesus and 
his friends in Jericho with worship in the 
synagogue, and talk of what had been there 
in the days of yore; how Joshua had kept 
the feast upon those plains, and how he took 
the city and the land because he knew that 
God was with him. And Jesus said in quiet 
tones of perfect confidence, ^^God is with us 
also." And when he spoke of God as with 
them there, to give them conquests greater 
than their fathers ever made, albeit not by 
force of arms, a sense of awe filled all their 
hearts, and the place was holy, as the angel 
prince told Joshua when he bade him loose 
the sandals from his feet. 

The Sabbath being past, the travellers re- 
sumed their march with psalms of praise 
and gladness. Jesus and the twelve were 
early on the way, among the first, and kept 
their place through all the long ascent. 
With them a company of nearer friends 
were joined, of whom the most were fearful 
what the day might bring. They wished 



THE DARKENING WAY 121 

the Master would not go among his bitter 
foes. They said this to the twelve, but not 
to Jesus, for they dared not seek to turn him 
from his course. 

Sometimes he strode ahead, as though in 
haste to reach the goal, as though Jerusalem 
were full of loyal friends who waited for 
his coming with a joyful welcome. When 
he saw a look of wonder and amazement on 
the faces of the twelve, he took them from 
the rest apart, and told them plainly what 
the end would be, as he had done before 
in the last weeks. But still his words were 
strange to them and vague. They feared 
indeed some dreadful hour of pain and 
shame might come to him they loved, but 
more than this they could not think the 
Lord's anointed would be called to meet. 

They rounded Olivet toward dusk and 
came to Bethphage. Beyond this town a 
little space, where burst upon the traveller 
all the pride of Zion — all the hundred mas- 
sive towers on her walls, all the stately 
marble palaces, and higher still the house 
of God with golden roof that shone afar — 
Jesus saw a festal throng ascending from the 



122 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Kedron vale. He saw the waving green, 
he heard the distant notes of joy, and knew 
at once the meaning of the scene. 

These people, mainly Galileans and in- 
formed of his approach by some of the cara- 
van who had hastened on with all speed 
instead of stopping with the rest in Jericho, 
had now come out to welcome him as King, 
as that great son of David who would get 
them liberty and ease and wide renown. 
Their King indeed he knew himself to be, 
though other than they fancied, and he at 
once resolved to yield him to the welcom- 
ing throng, yet in such wise that they might 
not mistake the kingship which he sought. 
He sent therefore to Bethphage for an ass 
that he had seen but just before. When 
this arrived where Jesus stood, the first of 
those who came with branches reached the 
crest, and straightway cast their outer gar- 
ments on the foal which Peter held. 

When Jesus mounted and set forth, the 
fiery Galilean leaders being in the van and 
then the twelve, a mighty shout of joy went 
up that echoed from the temple walls across 
the vale, and down the slope of Olivet was 



THE DARKENING WAY 1 23 

Still prolonged by those who had not reached 
the top. Many hailed him ^^Son of David" 
as he meekly rode along; some strewed his 
way with palms, or even in delirium of joy 
cast off their garments on the path before 
him. They fondly thought their ancient 
dream was soon to be fulfilled. With songs 
and shouts and salutations moved the long 
procession down the winding way. 

The twelve were swept along to thoughts 
of earthly glory with the noisy crowd. At 
times the word which Jesus oft of late had 
spoken came to mind, and then this scene 
of joyful welcome grew dark from fear of 
coming ill. They wondered more than ever 
at the man who rode there silent, calm in 
midst of wild acclaims, his face more sad 
than joyous. Once those nearest saw him 
weeping as he went, and heard him mourn 
the city's unbelief and tragic fate. 

Before they reached the city gate their 
coming had called out large crowds of men 
and women. A few of these were glad, and 
dared to shout in welcome as Jesus passed, 
and then fell into line behind and marched 
to do him honour. Many watched the 



124 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

cavalcade in silence, some with scowling 
and contempt. 

A knot of Pharisees with stoles drawn 
close about them, hearing Jesus hailed as 
''King" and ''Son of David," bade him stop 
it. "What his right to these great titles? 
Why delude these noisy throngs with empty 
hopes?" But Jesus, staying not, replied that 
what they heard was right and fit. It was 
a time to shout "hosanna," and if men held 
their peace, the very stones beneath his feet 
would cry against them. The Pharisees, 
abashed and angered, sought another street 
and disappeared. 

And now more slowly moved the caval- 
cade, for throngs from every quarter packed 
the narrow way. Along the roofs of many 
houses curious people stood, and watched 
the strange procession. Past the synagogue 
of Galilee and up the Temple Mount, with 
ever louder bursts of joy, it went, and bend- 
ing round the lofty Roman tower of An- 
tonia, it poured itself at last upon the broad 
and sacred court about the House of God. 

Then Jesus sent the foal away, to be re- 
turned to Bethphage, when the garments 



THE DARKENING WAY 1 25 

spread upon it had been given to their 
owners. 

The outer court was thronged with men, 
and through the din that rose one heard 
with difficulty the music of the Levites 
within the House of God. 

When they reached the terrace before the 
inner wall, beyond which Gentiles might 
not go on pain of death, they paused a little 
and looked down upon the multitudes sur- 
rounded by the stately marble cloisters east 
and west and south. High upon the cloister 
roof they saw the Roman sentries, observant 
of the scenes below, whose signal to the for- 
tress guard would bring swift punishment 
to any who should break the peace. On 
every side they saw strange garbs from dis- 
tant lands, and many Gentile proselytes 
mingling with the Jews. 

Passing through a splendid gateway and 
climbing many steps, they joined the wor- 
shippers within the court of Israel. 

Some were there in peasant dress like 
theirs, and some in costly robes, white like 
the priests', with broad amulets around the 
arm or on the brow. The lamb was burn- 



126 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

ing on the lofty altar with flour and oil 
and wine. The high priests' offering was 
brought, while Levites sang the psalm that 
tells of Zion's beauty, whose God shall be 
our guide forever. Afterward, within the 
Holy Place, invisible to Jesus and his 
friends, the sacred incense was poured out 
upon the coals, the priests came forth be- 
fore the portal, and spoke aloud, the five 
together, Aaron's blessing, while all the 
people bowed. 

Then, descending through the women's 
court and through Nicanor's gate, the little 
Galilean group slowly made their way 
through the long cloisters. Jesus marked 
what men were doing, heard them ask the 
price of doves and sheep, and saw them 
changing foreign coins for shekels of the 
sanctuary. Then as the darkness gathered 
he went forth to Bethany. 



CHAPTER TEN 



THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 



CHAPTER TEN 

THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 

THE second day at morning they who 
had come with Jesus were perplexed, 
for he had gone forth from Bethany early 
and alone, before the time of opening the 
Temple gates. Supposing he would come 
to morning prayer, they sought him in the 
inner court as soon as they gained entrance, 
but sought in vain. He was not there. 
Then through the lower court, among 
the gathering multitudes, they wandered, 
searching, until an outcry toward the Water 
Gate drew them and others thither. Hoarse 
shouts of rage and calls for help were heard 
above the tumult before they learned the 
cause. Every minute added to the press 
and tumult. Soon they caught the voice 
of Jesus, and, struggling to the front, they 
saw him standing there amid the wild con- 
fusion, himself serene, but with a look and 

129 



130 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

bearing of authority so high and awful that 
men, though hot with anger, quailed before 
it. They felt that he was master and would 
have his way. 

The Roman soldiers who had hastened 
to the scene and had roughly broken pas- 
sage through the crowd withdrew again on 
seeing that the matter touched not Caesar's 
rights. The Temple guard commanded 
order, but laid not hand on Jesus, neither 
sought to check the headlong exit of the 
traders and the brokers. The cloisters were 
soon cleared of traffic, and any who that 
day would purchase sacrifices or exchange 
their common coins for sacred ones must 
do it in the neighbouring streets, or on the 
Mount of Olives, as in the earlier times. 

The Galilean brothers still had kept to- 
gether, though roughly jostled by the surg- 
ing throng. Intently watching every move 
of Jesus, they asked each other w^hat might 
follow. People near them whispered, 
^^Who is this? At least a mighty prophet! 
How flashed his eye, how rang his voice 
above the angry din! How fearless stood 
he when those sons of Jabesh raised their 



THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 131 

fists, and when the guard rushed in with 
glittering swords!" 

All eyes were now on Jesus, who, his sud- 
den deed accomplished, calmly turned and 
met the gaze of priest and Pharisee. His 
friends pressed up as near him as they 
could, and heard the elders ask him by what 
right he interfered with their arrangements 
in the Temple courts, and set himself 
against the scribes and sanhedrin? What 
heavenly sign could he produce to justify 
his bold, yea, lawless act? Would he de- 
stroy the peace of Israel and even the House 
of God itself? 

Thus chiding him with bitter words, the 
rulers crowded threateningly around, and 
blindly asked a sign. In that moment it 
flashed upon the soul of Jesus that the place 
where he was standing, even the sacred 
Temple of his fathers, where many a soul 
in the past had met with God and found 
his peace, was doomed to ruin ; but he felt 
that something greater lived within his 
spirit, and with shining face uplifted, in 
tones of high prophetic confidence, he ut- 
tered words about a temple yet to be and 



132 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

purer worship men were soon to learn, 
words about a holy Kingdom of his God 
that he would build in coming days to take 
the place, yea, more than take the place, 
of that great sanctuary in which they stood 
and all its solemn rites. 

Thus darkly fell his words because the 
very truth he saw exceeded far the thoughts 
of men around him. Even his own disci- 
ples did not receive and understand his say- 
ing; yet in that moment, as he stood there 
hushing all the tumult by his pure pres- 
ence and the consciousness of power in his 
soul, they felt more deeply than before that 
he who spoke was brave and strong enough 
to be the Lord's anointed King. 

But the scribes and high officials, the men 
of mark in Israel, saw in this audacious 
Galilean a foe whom they must crush at any 
hazard and must crush at once. They 
sought henceforth to catch him by his 
words, and so destroy the foolish admira- 
tion in which the people held him. They 
challenged his authority to speak or act as 
guide in sacred things in Israel, know- 
ing well his lowly untaught life of toil far 



THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 133 

from the famous rabbis and knowing too 
that he shared not the claim to reverence 
which rests on austere self-denial such as 
John's or on a blameless keeping of all an- 
cestral statutes — the peculiar merit of the 
Pharisees; but Jesus met their challenge 
with an answer that foiled their aim com- 
pletely. Had John, the people's hero and 
Herod's recent victim, been authorised of 
Heaven to do his work or not? The scribes 
dared not answer No, because John's fame 
was great; and to deny that he was sent of 
God might stir his devotees to deeds of vio- 
lence; and they could not answer Yes, for 
well they knew that John had welcomed 
Jesus as one greater than himself. 

Thus did Jesus silence, for a time, the 
leaders who were seeking his destruction. 
And yet this victory did not blind him to 
his deadly peril; nor did that other when 
he made the common coins they carried 
with them, whereon was Caesar's image, 
proclaim that Caesar plainly had his rights, 
as well as God, a word that would intensify 
the hate of Pharisee and Zealot. He also 
met the haughty Sadducees on their own 



134 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

ground, and bore away the palm. They 
held by Moses, yet denied a future life. 
And Jesus with a word from Moses bat- 
tered down their doctrine of despair. Said 
not God to Moses from the Bush, ^'I am the 
God of Abraham"? Since, then, it is not 
worthy of the Lord that he should call him- 
self the God of dust or empty shadows, 
Abraham was living, though long dead. 

But though the untaught artisan from 
Nazareth withstood all schemes to steal 
away his prestige with the throng, his clear 
eye saw that death was unescapable and 
near. The foe was on his track, fiercer than 
wolves in winter. The "unfaithful vine- 
dressers" would kill the "son" of the owner 
of the vineyard. Jesus saw it, yet unper- 
turbed as when his followers awoke him in 
the tempest on the Lake of Galilee, he went 
his way, and spoke his word of warning 
and of doom. A fig tree full of leaves but 
fruitless, people bidden to a royal feast who 
scouted, one and all, the gracious summons 
— that was Israel, that in fullest sense the 
sacred city. Beyond the storm that soon 
would smite his life and smother love with 



THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 135 

hate Jesus saw another tempest drawing 
on whose iron flail would beat the walls 
of Zion into dust and make an end of 
that religion which no longer knew its God. 
Yet here and there amid the thorns a flower 
blossomed at the feet of Jesus, a door was 
opened to him joyously, and hearts re- 
ceived his message from the Father. 

Such a door was that of Simon in Beth- 
any. His house was such as prosperous 
merchants built — a house of stone, two 
stories high, the court well paved with mar- 
ble and having in the midst a fountain. 
Round its basin there were white and violet 
cyclamens in bloom. The rooms below, 
about the court, had carven doors of olive 
wood, and those above were closed with 
figured tapestry of Tyrian make. About 
the house were vines and figs, and one large 
balsam tree in front. 

The feast that Simon gave to honour 
Jesus was at night. The court between the 
fountain and the dais, strewn with rugs and 
cushions, served as dining-hall. The guests 
were met by Simon in the vestibule with 
words of greeting, and kissed on either 



136 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

cheek. They laid aside their sandals near 
the door, bathed and wiped their feet, a 
servant aiding, and then went forward past 
the fountain to the cushions, as their host 
directed. 

Jesus had the place of honour on the dais, 
near him Simon and the twelve in order as 
they chanced to come, and finally the sons 
of Simon. None reclined till Jesus with 
uplifted hands had given thanks to God and 
asked his gracious blessing on the meal. 

The feast in part was ready on the hand- 
some rug before the guests, and part was 
later served by friends in Simon's house. 

The host cared not for rare and costly 
food, and knew that modest cheer with 
words of love would please and honour 
Jesus best. And so he set forth common 
viands — roasted lamb and bread and olives, 
fresh new figs just ripened in the tropic 
gardens by the Sea of Salt, and wine from 
Magdala. 

The scene within the court as they re- 
clined was one of peace, the voices low and 
brotherly, and villagers about the open door 
looked on and listened. They talked of the 



THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 1 37 

approaching feast, of days gone by in Gali- 
lee, and of the tower in Siloam that had 
fallen recently with heavy loss of life. 

There came a hush at length as one, then 
others, noticed that a woman knelt behind 
the Master with a cruse of ointment. 
Silently, with lavish hand that spared no 
drop of all the costly perfume, she poured 
it on his head, and with it, through her 
eyes and bearing, gave the costlier and more 
welcome incense of a loving heart. 

And soon the spacious court from end to 
end was full of fragrance, rich, delicious, 
as from banks on banks of thyme and cen- 
sers of most precious myrrh. The oint- 
ment, brought by Arab merchants from the 
East, had been distilled from flowers that 
grew along the Ganges and the Indus. A 
cruet of the finest cost the price of three 
good slaves, and years of common use would 
not exhaust its store. 

The hush that reigned during the 
woman's grateful act gave way, when it was 
done, to words of admiration from the host, 
with which, as one could see, some of the 
twelve agreed. But others wore a serious 



138 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

or a troubled look, as more or less in doubt 
about the fitness of the deed, while one 
made low remarks of manifest displeasure. 
When some near him gave approving nods 
or whispers, he was bold to blame the act 
aloud, half rising on his elbow and turning 
toward the woman. ^Why this loss? It 
had been wiser, more in keeping with our 
holy Law and with our Master's word, to 
have sold the flask and have given to the 
poor, to some of those who stand out there 
about the door in need of daily bread. A 
little ointment would have served the end 
as well — a worthy end, and with the rest 
one might have done much good. Now all 
is wasted on a moment's pleasure." 

The woman turned a troubled face to 
Jesus, grieving that one near to him should 
hold her act so cheap. Jesus saw her look 
and understood her heart. Her deed of 
love had touched him deeply, and flashed 
upon his soul both glad and solemn 
thoughts. At once he silenced him who 
criticised the act. What he had blamed as 
waste was beautiful in Jesus' sight and 
timely too. A little while and he would 



THE PROPHET IN JERUSALEM 1 39 

not be with them at a feast again, or where 
their love could minister to him in face to 
face exchange. A gift at parting was this 
gift that she had made, and beautiful be- 
cause her best. To give to him as she had 
given was an echo of his inmost Gospel, 
and so loud and clear an echo that until 
the end of time itself it should not wholly 
die away. 

But more than this, her act of love, un- 
known indeed to her, was unto him a sac- 
rament of burial. His end was near, he 
knew, and such an end as well might leave 
no chance for any loving rites, even if 
friends were found who dared to ask the 
broken form of one condemned to the most 
shameful death. And Jesus with a clear 
presentiment of what would come received 
the woman's act as a sacrament of burial. 

Now when he spoke these solemn words 
a deeper hush fell on the little band, with 
chilling dread of some disaster that would 
soon overtake them all. 

But on the face of Judas, when he had 
left the others at the door of Simon's house, 
a heavy shadow gathered; a hot and threat- 



140 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

ening glow was in his eyes. He felt that 
he had reached the parting of the ways. 
Rebuked by Jesus, and repelled from him 
by all he said of his approaching fate, he 
went away alone, and held communion with 
his wounded pride, his fears and unbelief. 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 



THE THICK DARKNESS 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

THE THICK DARKNESS 

TWO days had passed since Jesus rode 
in royal state across the Kedron bridge 
and up the Temple Mount The third was 
sinking when he left the sacred court to 
come again no more. 

Across the little valley eastward from 
Jerusalem Jesus paused with four disci- 
ples, while the gold and marble of the 
House of God were splendid in the setting 
sun, and with prophetic words foretold the 
final overthrow of this and every temple 
wherein the spirit of the living Father is 
but a name. 

The twelve had parted for a little while 
on various errands, promising to share their 
evening meal in Bethany. And while the 
silver trumpet sounded loud the call to wor- 
ship, Judas sought the court of Israel, and 
crossing to its limit nearest to the lodgings 

143 



144 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

of the priests waited restlessly until he saw 
the man he sought, a member of the daily- 
watch before the Holy Place whom he had 
known for years. He asked this man to 
take him to the captain of the Temple, and 
to call some leading priests together, as he 
had important words for them to hear. 

When a group of priests were gathered 
in the captain's room, among them Joseph 
Caiaphas himself, the son of Simon told 
them who he was and why he came. He 
said that he had hoped at first, in Galilee, 
that Jesus was the promised King, such 
signs of power were wrought by him upon 
the sick; but now this early hope was gone. 
The man had spurned his chance to rule 
as King a year ago beside the lake, and 
spurned it here again when hailed as ^^Son 
of David" by the crowds who met him on 
the Mount of Olives, bearing palms. No 
one could longer look to him for Israel's 
redemption. And this was rendered yet 
more clear by what he now had said and 
done against the anointed leaders of God's 
people. 

Judas, speaking on this wise, inquired if 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 45 

he could be of any slightest service to the 
holy priests in purging Israel's sacred soil 
of a transgressor. Then were they glad, for 
though agreed that Jesus ought to die they 
dared not seize him openly for fear a tumult 
might be raised and Rome have cause to 
make her rule more stringent still. They 
welcomed Judas as a wise and patriotic 
man, and said his aid should not be unre- 
warded. They asked where Jesus lodged, 
and whether he would fight if brought at 
last to bay. They cautioned Judas that the 
safest time to seize the common foe would 
be at night; and then with sugared words 
dismissed him by a private way. 

With mingled feelings Judas hurried 
back toward Bethany as twilight turned to 
dark. He shuddered deeply as he passed 
the hoary tomb of Absalom within the Vale 
of Kings, where demons had been said to 
lodge; and then increased his pace until he 
neared the little village. Then he loitered, 
asked himself if he should stop where Jesus 
and the rest were staying, or go at once to 
Simon's, where he was to lodge. He did 
not care to see the face of Jesus, or meet 



146 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

the eyes of his companions. But still his 
anger hotly burned against the man who 
had shamed and thwarted him, his disap- 
pointment too was great that Jesus set him- 
self against all thoughts of earthly thrones 
and kingdoms, and then if he was to keep 
his compact with the priests he must stay 
within the circle of the twelve, putting on 
a front of trust and friendliness. So he re- 
solved at last to meet and sup with them as 
had been planned. 

The customary greeting when he joined 
the band was warmer by a shade than he 
was wont to give. This struck the Master's 
ear, and made him turn a searching gaze on 
Judas, which the traitor felt but did not 
meet. 

When Philip asked him, as they went to 
rest, why he had come so late, he said a 
friend had met him at the evening sacrifice 
and had kept him longer than he knew. 

As Jesus on the following day would send 
to buy the paschal lamb and other needful 
things and make all ready for the feast, he 
sent by John and Simon, passing Judas, 
though he bore the common purse and 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 47 

wished to go. And Jesus gave no name of 
street or host, but spoke in signs, that Judas, 
whose dark secret was not hid from his clear 
eye, might not cross his plan to keep the 
great ancestral ieast with his disciples. Yet 
when the evening came, and the supper was 
now well-nigh ended in the upper room, 
when Jesus craved an hour of holy fellow- 
ship in which to give his own a sign of all 
his deepest truth, a symbol binding them to 
him and each to each with bands that time 
and tide should never break, then at last 
he bade his faithless follower go, but not in 
words that others understood. He spared 
him this disgrace. 

Then Judas rose and left the chamber, his 
secret unsuspected save by one. And now 
that secret pressed for action, and the way 
was clear before him. He answered not the 
friendly salutation spoken at the lower door 
by a member of the household, but hurried 
forth in bitter silence. He ran along the 
empty streets until he reached the lordly 
house of Joseph just above the entrance to 
the bridge which led across from David's 
Hill unto the Temple Mount 



148 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

The festal company were still reclining 
in the spacious hall when Judas gained 
admittance to the outer court and sent an 
urgent message to the priest. When 
Caiaphas had heard where Jesus was, and 
how he might be safely seized, he called his 
trusted servants hastily and gave to each a 
separate charge. One bore a message to 
Antonia, and asked that soldiers be des- 
patched to him at once to seize a dangerous 
man and so prevent a riot. Others went to 
call the judges, seventy men from near and 
far, yet all within the city walls, and 
Joseph bade the messengers be swift and 
sure. 

Now Judas waited in the high priest's 
court, a lonely man beside a tall and flaring 
torch. And as he sat in silence there came to 
him, unbidden and unwelcome, thoughts of 
other days, swift glimpses of the Master's 
face in hours when he had sought to draw 
the twelve to him in love and trust; and 
snatches of the Master's prayers that God 
would make his followers true and noble 
men, to stand unscathed in hours of hot 
temptation, and to scorn all base and love- 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 49 

less deeds. He rose, and struggled with 
these memories, and sought to cast them 
out. 

When he resumed his seat beside the tall 
and flaring torch, two men passed through 
the court, who seemed to look upon him 
with contempt, though they were strangers; 
and when they went within the hall he felt 
yet lonelier than before. Where should he 
find a friend again? How chill the place, 
how hard the face and tones of Caiaphas! 
How far away the upper chamber seemed 
and the fair Galilean days! 

Then a voice within him whispered, 
^^The door is open still, and the Master 
pardons seventy times seven. These priests 
will surely take his life, and blood will be 
upon thy head of one who never did thee 
aught but good.'' But as he thought and 
struggled inwardly, now stung by disap- 
pointed hope and the bitter memory of re- 
bukes from Jesus' lips, now almost yielding 
to the better impulse of his heart, the sol- 
diers came, and his good angel vanished in 
the shadows of the night. 

The officer and Joseph talked with Judas 



I^O JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

of the route, the line was formed, the 
marching order given, and he led the way. 
Soon he brought the priests and soldiers to 
the house whence he had fled an hour or 
two before. The door was locked, no light 
was seen, and all was still within. They 
knocked until the bolt was drawn, and 
though the owner said that Jesus had gone 
forth, they searched the house throughout. 
A whispered council then was held outside, 
and Judas, much chagrined that Jesus was 
not found, advised to go at once and search 
a garden in the Kedron vale where he was 
wont to rest. The priests and officer agreed 
with him, the soldiers formed again, and 
forth they went without the city gate, and 
having crossed the bridge turned southward 
through the silent night. 

A garden, walled and shaded deep with 
ancient olive trees, lay just ahead upon the 
left. With cautious step and peering in 
among the trees by light of torch and lan- 
tern Judas and the foremost priests and 
soldiers entered. Then, as they went slowly 
forward, suddenly from out the darkness, 
calm and resolute, the Master stepped, and 



THE THICK DARKNESS 151 

said, ^^Whom seek ye?'' Startled, they made 
answer, ^Jesus." He, advancing still, re- 
sponded, ^^I am he"; and asked why they 
had come with swords and clubs as though 
to seize a robber. Then they fell back a 
step, both priests and soldiers, somewhat 
frightened by his sudden bold appearance 
there at dead of night. A man whose 
simple word had wrought great signs upon 
the sick — ^what fire of wrath, what dreadful 
stroke of judgment might that word bring 
down upon them now! 

They halted, awed and doubting, till he 
spoke again, requesting that his followers 
be not touched ; but when they saw that he 
would not resist, emboldened, they went up 
and bound his hands with leathern thongs. 
Then back across the bridge and through 
the echoing streets they marched with speed 
until they reached the house of Annas, near 
the palace whence they started. There a 
halt was made. The soldiers, save a score 
for guard, returned to their dark fortress, 
and the helpless prisoner was brought be- 
fore the priest. When Annas sought with 
guile to make the Master tell him what he 



152 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

taught, he failed, and failing let his min- 
ions smite the face of Jesus unrebuked. 
Thence, guarded right and left by soldiers, 
marching to the high priest's palace, Jesus 
shortly stood before the arch-tribunal of his 
nation. 

Gathered in that hall where, earlier in 
the night, the family and guests had eaten 
of the paschal lamb, the judges ranged in 
semi-circle sat, with Joseph in the centre 
on a higher seat. On either wing there was 
a scribe to count the votes. And Jesus, pale 
from watching and from agony of soul, his 
hands still tied with thongs, stood in the 
crescent, facing Joseph. None was there to 
plead his cause. 

Then witnesses were brought to prove 
some deadly wrong in Jesus, some word 
against the Temple or the king, or that he 
claimed to be the Lord's Anointed. But 
the judges, eager though they were to find 
a ground, saw none in what the witnesses 
had said. So wise and pure the life of him 
who stood before their bar, that even lying 
witnesses and hostile court could find no 
mortal blot therein! 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 53 

Then Joseph Caiaphas in extremest agi- 
tation rose, and lifting up his jewelled hand 
to heaven charged Jesus under oath to say 
if he were Christ, the King of Israel. When 
he had spoken thus, an awful hush fell on 
the sanhedrin. All eyes were fixed upon 
the prisoner's face, and men leaned forward 
in their eagerness to catch the fatal word, 
their muscles tense and rigid as their minds. 

And Jesus, facing Joseph there before the 
high tribunal, knowing that his answer 
meant his death, and would let loose against 
him all the pent-up rage of cruel bigotry, 
replied, ^^I am; and ye moreover who be- 
hold me helpless here shall see me yet en- 
throned in glorious power." 

Then the court tumultuously condemned 
the Son of Man to death, and angels watch- 
ing from the realms of glory hid their faces 
from the dreadful insults which the judges 
heaped upon his head. At last they wearied 
of abuse, and left him with the guard till 
break of day. 

But when the trumpet now had sounded 
and the festal sacrifice was being offered, 
priests and soldiers hurried Jesus west to 



154 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

Pilate's palace by the Joppa gate. His 
sanction once secured, their work would 
soon be done. But Roman sense of justice 
blocked their envious course. They charged 
that Jesus made himself a king, but Pilate, 
seeing Jesus there in peasant dress and 
friendless, withal a silent man who seemed 
unheedful of the noisy accusations of his 
foes, would not entertain the charge. Then 
hearing that the man had come from Gali- 
lee, he thought to free himself from fur- 
ther care by sending him to Herod. An 
hour later Herod sent him back, in mock- 
ery decked out as though a king. 

And silently the Master went, and silently 
he came again to Pilate. The calm that he 
had gained in prayer among the shadows 
of the olive trees was deep and full of 
strength and full of light. 

Then the Roman tried to set him free. 
He called aloud to all the throng assembled 
at the place of judgment, asking them if he 
should pardon Jesus. They could name a 
man for pardon on a festal day like this, 
and Pilate hoped the crowa would ask for 
Jesus. But priestly fear controlled the mul- 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 55 

titude and balked the Roman's wish. Then 
the prisoner disappeared within the palace, 
while the crowd without grew larger every 
minute, and the air was rent with angry 
noise. 

A little while and Pilate came again and 
Jesus with him. What had come to pass 
within the court no secret was, but written 
plain upon the face and form of Jesus. 
Round him was a purple tunic, soiled and 
worn, the garment of some soldier; on his 
head a chaplet of acacia thorns with crim- 
son fringe across the brow; upon his face 
a record full of suffering. 

And Pilate hoped the sight would move 
the crowd to pity, but his hope was vain. 
The rage of priests became a wild resistless 
passion, and when Pilate went again within 
they cast aside the pious scruples which 
before had kept them out, and followed 
with insistent clamour to the court. And 
there at last they brought the Roman to 
their terms. If he is Caesar's friend, they 
say, he cannot spare this man who claims 
to be a king; and if he spares, yea, if he 



156 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

dare to spare him, their cry shall reach to 
Caesar's ear. 

Then Pilate's sense of righteousness was 
quenched by love of power, and he fell. 
Once more he faced the crowd without, this 
time to do its will, for sitting as a judge he 
sentenced Jesus unto death. 

The morning now was far advanced — 
a festal morning, and the streets of the Holy 
City were full of colour and full of joyous 
life. The laughter of little children was 
mingled with the serious tones of grey- 
haired men and women. Glad salutations 
of old friends from far and near, meeting 
at this feast of feasts, were followed with 
devoutest wishes that God would visit 
Israel with deliverance as in the ancient 
days, in Egypt and in Babylon. So flowed 
the tides of life along the streets of Zion. 

But suddenly upon this pleasant scene a 
wind sprang up from out the southern des- 
ert, the sky grew dark, and a heavy storm 
approached. 

One passing at this hour the Damascus 
gate and out along the highway northward 
saw upon the left, against the darkening 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 57 

sky, three crosses bearing human forms; 
and on the hill around saw groups of men 
and women. Nearer come, one saw a heavy 
hammer on the grass, and cords, and iron 
spikes. Four bundles lay there also, each a 
soldier's share of what the victims once had 
worn. 

Rapidly the light of day went out upon 
the hills, and men were hushed in awe. 
Some looking at the central cross, whereon 
the Galilean prophet had been nailed, beat 
hard upon their breasts and groaned and 
ran away. One little group stood closer 
than the rest — the soldiers only nearer — a 
group of trembling women, and these un- 
heedful of the gathering gloom around saw 
only how their one fond hope, whereon 
their very life had hung, was sinking 
through a mystery of pain to the deeper 
mystery of death. 

The clouds swept lower still and grew 
more black. The city scarce was seen from 
Golgotha. Its towers were dim and ghostly 
shapes. The Gentile games below Siloam 
stopped, and people fled in terror to their 
homes. The vagrant dogs ran howling 



158 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

round the city walls, and down the shud- 
dering vale of Hinnom. 

Within his palace Pontius Pilate heard 
again from walls and roof the dreadful 
echoes of the cry the priests had raised there 
in the morning, ^^Crucify him! crucify!" 
He could not shut these echoes out. He 
wished the priests were crucified instead of 
Jesus. He marvelled that the day was 
changed to night, and called his Grecian 
seer to learn what this dread sign portended. 

Joseph Caiaphas was pale and troubled 
by his thoughts ; and though he shunned the 
hall wherein the court had met, he could 
not banish from his mind the image of the 
prisoner. 

Upon the Temple mount the guards for- 
got their tasks, and ran together looking 
at the awful sky. Some men thought of 
Egypt and its doom in days long past, and 
some of Jesus out there on the rocky hill 
beyond the wall. 

The little group that long had stood be- 
fore the cross still watched and waited in 
the darkness; they could not go away, 
though staying pierced their souls as Roman 



THE THICK DARKNESS 1 59 

nails had pierced the hands and feet of 
Jesus. Moments that were years, and hours 
ages long, had now at last gone by when 
once again the Master spoke, commending 
to his Father's hand his weary spirit. Then 
his head sank down upon his shoulder, and 
the friends at length became aware of the 
darkness on the land, and shuddered. 

Toward evening, when the pall of night 
and tempest had been lifted from the smit- 
ten earth, tender hands took down the 
broken body from the cross, wrapt it up in 
linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb 
hard by the hill. 

The man long-promised, best and wisest 
of the race, the only one who knew the 
Father and was in spirit wholly like him, 
had been crucified and buried. 

The fate foreseen from Galilee had come 
upon him, and there were few who 
mourned. 

The light of his short day, more precious 
than the radiance of sun and stars, had been 
quenched in pitiless and awful gloom. Was 
this the end? Or were his words about a 



l6o JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

coming in the glory of the Father, which 
even his foes should see, a heavenly bridge 
for Hope to pass from Golgotha into a 
Golden Future? 



CHAPTER TWELVE 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS 
OVER DEATH 



CHAPTER TWELVE 

THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 

JERUSALEM, whose streets had re- 
sounded with fierce cries as her Mes- 
siah, all unrecognised as such, was led forth 
with robbers to his bitter death without the 
walls, was still again, and the spring night 
wore on to Sunday morning. But Peter 
and his brother were hurrying back toward 
Galilee, not daring to be seen by those whose 
hate had brought their Master to the cross. 
The crushing failure that had come to all 
their cherished hopes had left them spirit- 
less and weak, unable to cast off their fears 
or reason calmly of the hour's need. To 
fly far from the bloody, doomed city and 
the scenes of the last two days was now their 
only thought. Before the morning dawned 
in the deep Jordan gorge they had passed 
through Jericho, and had felt the pain of 
remembering with what hope they had so 

163 



164 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

lately come to this town, when their faces 
and their Master's were set toward the 
Holy City. How fair their old dream of 
an earthly Kingdom now appeared, seeing 
that it could never be realised! With every 
return of this heavy thought life grew more 
hopeless. But they kept on to the north, 
resting only in the day's greatest heat; and 
they were footsore and silent. Once they 
met a rabbi, who scowled on passing, then 
turned and cried that people who kept not 
God's law of the Sabbath were accursed. 
But they heeded not his condemnation. 
Their cup of fear and sorrow was already 
full. Nor did they at the moment recall 
the Master's liberating word about the 
Sabbath day, that it was made to give man 
rest and holy comfort. 

Late in the evening, worn out in body and 
bowed in spirit, they dropped in the shelter 
of a clump of olive trees, and for a little 
space forgot their loneliness and woe. 
They knew it not, but James and John, 
moved by the same fears, had left Jeru- 
salem together a little later than they, and 
were now sleeping in the open air a few 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 1 65 

miles down the river. Other apostles and 
near friends of Jesus, overwhelmed and 
scattered by the fate that had befallen him, 
were for a time lost to each other, as young 
partridges when the mother has fallen a 
prey to the hunter or the fox. 

When the fugitives reached the Lake of 
Galilee the following day, and came to 
Kerak, whose healing springs, alas, could 
never cure their deep hurt, an old neigh- 
bour from Capernaum who had a fishing- 
boat offered them passage home. He 
needed not to ask them whether their young 
Master had set up the Kingdom which so 
many craved. He read the failure of their 
hopes writ on their sad faces and bent 
forms, and wisely waited for their story un- 
til their hearts should prompt them to be- 
gin. The boat moreover left him little time 
for word or thought of things afar, and he 
like many another in his town had not been 
deeply moved by Jesus since he refused to 
wear an earthly crown. This action clearly 
proved to them that he was not the expected 
Hero of their nation. So in a silence sel- 
dom broken the three men passed north- 



1 66 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

ward, toward evening, over the sparkling 
waters they had known and loved from 
childhood. 

Halfway up the lake, when the scenes 
drew nearer which had been made memora- 
ble by deeds and words of their great 
Friend, the immediate past with its dark 
shadows began to yield to those golden days 
and months whose memories now came 
thronging back upon them tumultuously. 
And Peter more than Andrew was mastered 
by the vision of the past His spirit ranged 
from point to point along the shores, 
whither he had gone in company with Jesus, 
and with every scene there came to mind 
great words that he had heard the Master 
speak, or acts of love and power that shed 
the very light of God upon the humble 
prophet. 

Yonder, in the far distance, gleams for a 
moment the white synagogue where the 
demoniac was healed, and there, below, the 
beach-line is just visible where he, first of 
all, had been called from his nets to a disci- 
pleship that seemed so full of hope. A little 
further back, but hidden now from sight, 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 167 

lay Chorazin and Bethsaida with their care- 
less multitudes, whose worldliness had 
cost the Master sleepless nights. There, 
too, on the left, stretched the whole garden 
of Gennesaret, wonderful with its fountains 
and groves, its almost endless summer and 
luxuriance of plant and vine and tree. 
What hours and days had he passed in that 
paradise with one who gave to all its many 
charms a charm more subtle still! And 
there by the great white sycamore is the 
quiet inlet where the Master spoke from 
his boat to the crowds on the shore, and 
where, later, they would have set a crown 
on his head had he not sternly refused to 
listen to their ardent words and withdrawn 
to the dark hillside. 

Yonder, at the foot of that high cliff, they 
had landed after the wild storm — he and 
his companions with the Master who had 
slept on a pillow in the stern of the boat 
until they awaked him with their cries; and 
through that dark defile behind the cliff 
and northward they had come down to the 
lake after the long and wonderful walk 
with him past Tyre and Sidon and through 



1 68 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

the northern mountains. Across the lake, 
beyond Capernaum in the west, now in 
clearer view, stands the hill where the Mas- 
ter spoke the blessing for those who mourn 
and those who are persecuted. Some of 
those who heard his word declared that 
Israel had never had so great a prophet, so 
wise and gracious and mighty a teacher 
of the way of God. 

Higher yet, and far away to the north- 
ward up the Jordan, towered white Her- 
mon, and Peter, gazing on it, said within 
his heart, ^^It was there — O joyous hour! 
I hailed him as Messiah. And he blessed 
me for that word, with joy that lighted all 
his face beyond what we had ever seen 
thereon. He blessed me for it; and yet his 
thought of the Messiah, his thought of 
Israel's hope, was not as ours. He plainly 
said his people would reject him, and now 
they have fulfilled his word. They have 
indeed rejected him, and he is dead, our 
Master, slain by Gentiles. But up yonder 
he blessed me when I said. Thou art Mes- 
siah! Was he mistaken— he so wise, so 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 169 

good, SO near to God? Who then can know 
the truth, if he knew not?'^ 

Peter was roused from his deep reverie 
by voices on the shore, and then their boat 
was at the pier — the very pier from which 
he had put out so many times with Jesus. 
In the friendly shade of evening, having 
parted from Andrew, he made his way un- 
noticed and alone to his near home, now 
empty, for all the family had gone to keep 
the paschal feast, and it would be two days 
at least before the return of the Galilean 
caravans. 

Instinctively he sought the little room 
which Jesus, when in town, had counted his, 
and groping through the darkness to the 
Master's cot he lay down, glad to be alone 
with his thoughts. 

"Howstrange andglorious this cottage has 
become since that day when first I brought 
home Jesus as my guest! Out there in the 
little court the Master healed the paralytic, 
let down through the roof by his friends; 
and there too he spoke the word that they 
are near and dear to him who do the will 
of God. From her chamber across the 



170 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

court my mother came forth, restored from 
fever by the touch and presence of our 
guest. Here, under this very roof, when we 
had come back secretly from the north, he 
rebuked us for striving with one another 
for the honour of being first in the Kingdom 
which we thought was near; and he said if 
any one of us would be the chief, he should 
make himself the servant of all. And well 
we knew that this was his own way: he 
made himself our servant. 

"Here at my door he stood that Sabbath 
evening after sunset, and touched the sick, 
and spoke many gracious words. How 
often, when he gave the blessing over meat, 
here in this home, our hearts were lifted up! 
How often and how strangely did his look 
and silent presence work in our hearts re- 
lease from fear and care! And here we 
met and told him what we had done and 
taught, sent out by twos through Galilee. 
And when he heard our words, how we had 
cast out demons in his name, he thanked 
the Father for our trust, and said that he 
had seen the fall of Satan. How were our 
souls exalted in his presence that hour! 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 17 1 

Surely, God was with him, the Spirit of the 
Highest was upon him as on no other 
prophet in all the past of Israel!" 

Thus Peter lived again the days which 
the friendship of Jesus had made to blos- 
som with hope and joy and holy aspiration. 
The power of that divine fellowship came 
upon him in his weariness and sorrow as a 
quickening breath from heaven. More and 
more he felt it as the hours went by. His 
soul was in the presence of the Master, and 
as of old his messages thrilled him, lifted 
him, and bore him on to God. Truth and 
the Truth-B ringer lived again. The little 
room was heavenly bright and still. And 
Peter, awake or sleeping, mastered by holy 
memories and unconscious of the body, saw 
Jesus and heard his voice. The veil was 
lifted. The glory of the past that surged 
up within his spirit — glory radiating from 
the Master — blended in his thought with 
God and with that celestial Kingdom which 
should be. 

So the night passed, and day came again, 
and Peter walked the old ways along the 
lake, much by himself at first, yet ever con- 



172 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

scious of the presence of the unseen Lord. 

The incident of the Master's death was 
not forgotten, nor could ever be, but it was 
now submerged in a swelling jflood of life. 
The greatness of the spirit of Jesus, the 
divineness of his love, when once the agony 
of disappointment at his death had wept 
itself out, laid hold on Peter, and on others 
who had known the Lord best, with a power 
that bore them on resistlessly into a new 
hope, a dauntless courage, a fine, heroic life. 

And Peter kindled Andrew as they talked 
of what had been, and both were kindled by 
the touch of woman's calm devotion to One 
who had honoured woman as she had never 
been honoured in the ages past. The scat- 
tered band was reunited in the sacred con- 
sciousness of his presence who had bound 
them one by one unto himself while with 
them in the flesh. 

When months had passed, and the new 
faith was feared and persecuted by those 
who held the old, the young man Saul, upon 
the hot Damascus road, his soul on fire to 
keep the Law and so win heaven, yet doubt- 
ing, as Gamaliel his teacher did, whether 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 173 

this Strange new work might not be God's 
own, he, as he journeyed, saw the Lord. It 
was, he said, a revelation in his soul, an un- 
covering of Jesus there as Son of God, an 
inner revulsion from doubt to faith; it was, 
he said again, a heavenly vision, but as real 
as his own being, and wholly like that which 
the earlier disciples had seen. It flashed 
upon him from the inner world, as his 
spirit, seeking truth, was torn between doubt 
and duty. 

This Christ of his vision, unknown of 
him at first, unscarred by death and glorious 
as the sun, was not a presence to walk fa- 
miliarly with men, as once the Master 
walked; he was supernal, ^^the man from 
heaven," clothed in heavenly light, the ideal 
King of Israel, as Paul had long imagined 
him to be. 

Paul was not Peter, nor were their visions 
one. Each saw according to his past. But 
underneath their great experiences, where- 
in, as ever in man's deeper life, were things 
that were not understood, there ran the vital 
current of a clear and joyous certainty that 
he whom men had crucified was living, 



174 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

regnant, immortal; and with that confi- 
dence there arose in might the faith that 
their own life would stand the shock of 
death. 

This was the triumph of Jesus. Across 
the wide mysterious gulf of death his power 
held the men whom he had won. They felt 
his presence, saw him, knew him, and were 
strong. The reality of life beyond the 
grave, the sense of sharing God's eternal 
day, broke at last upon the world. It broke, 
and lo, beneath it, the ground from which 
the conviction of this reality sprang, was 
not some theory of immortal being, more 
clever and strong than men, urged by pro- 
foundest longings, had ever forged in ear- 
lier times, but it was an experience, a life, 
a personality, a spirit so pure and mighty 
that one who had felt its power knew hence- 
forth that it lived with the very life of God. 
This was the grounding of the great Easter 
faith, the basis clear and indestructible of 
the conviction that the Master was the Mas- 
ter still, seated at the right hand of the 
throne of power, the forerunner within the 



THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS OVER DEATH 175 

veil of a countless host who should choose 
his way. 

The final triumph of Jesus in the days of 
the great disappointment and the great re- 
covery was thus the triumph of life, of days 
of toil and nights of prayerful meditation, 
of deeds and looks of love, of unwearied 
patience with the dull of heart, of unbroken 
loyalty to highest truth seen as we see the 
sun in a clear sky, yes, and of tears for those 
whom love could not soften and of the long 
agony on the Roman cross ; a triumph won 
in humble Nazareth and in the thronged 
streets of Capernaum, among the boats by 
the beautiful lake and the palms of Gen- 
nesaret, in many an unnamed town hidden 
in the hills and mountains of Galilee, in 
Bethsaida and Jericho, in the land across 
the Jordan, in Bethany and Jerusalem. 
Against this vivid and divinely persuasive 
background of reality one and another child 
of the Christian dawn saw, in deep religious 
ecstasy or in dreams when dreams were po- 
tent, a speaking vision of the Master; but 
to the many disciples then and through the 
brightening ages since, no such vision has 



176 JESUS FOR THE MEN OF TODAY 

been given. But it does not matter. There 
is conviction in the soul which enters into 
fellowship with Jesus through the gateway 
of his deeds and words, a conviction that 
he lives. This is enough and will be till 
the end. For while the soul of man re- 
sponds to love and aspires to God, it will see 
deathless Hope beckoning it onward by the 
light of that triumphant Life which, having 
once mirrored the eternal Spirit of the Fa- 
ther to the uttermost of his love, must be 
vital and redeeming throughout all ages. 






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